High Spirits

Pura Belpré Honor Book

BEST OF THE YEAR
Chicago Review of Books · Kirkus

Publishers Weekly Flying Start

Meet the Belén family—a collection of heart-wrenching and unforgettable characters who live here, there, and somewhere with a taste of magic.

High Spirits is a symphony of eleven interconnected stories that stretches across generations and borders—the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, New Jersey, New York and the fictional town of Hidalpa. From a ten-year-old confronting her first heartbreak to a teenager riding out a lockdown drill in a Paterson high school.

This is a story collection about the things we inherit: love that's fierce but complicated, silence that speaks louder than words, and the weight of machismo passed down like an heirloom nobody wanted. It's about identity split across two countries, mental health nobody in the family wants to name out loud, and the kind of nostalgia that aches when you're homesick for a place you've never been to before.

Told in vivid, poetic prose woven through with Dominican Spanish, Camille Gomera-Tavarez has crafted a debut short story collection that Kirkus calls "authentic and immersive" and Booklist calls "deeply personal and relatable."

Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo, Sandra Cisneros, Angie Cruz, and Yaa Gyasi—this is a family saga that will make you laugh, break your heart, and leave you wanting to call your own abuela.

Ages 12 and up | 224 pages


P R A I S E

★ "Authentic and immersive...A labor of love imbued with dedication to family."
—Kirkus (starred)

★ "Deeply personal and relatable. Steeped in nostalgia and harsh but fierce love, this is a memorable family saga in its own right."
—Booklist (starred)

★ "Full of vivid and poetic imagery... settings worthy of drinking in, and thematic material ripe for contemplation about identity, intergenerational memory, and patriarchy and toxic masculinity, Gomera-Tavarez's soulfully crafted debut is a sensitive, intrinsically feminist work."
—Publishers Weekly (starred)

"A magical and unflinching look at the Dominican Diaspora"
—Dominican Writers Association