"Traté de recordar quién era. Fuerte, valiente, feroz, segura. Traté de llamarla, a esa Eelyn que elegiría a su gente por encima de todo. La busqué en mi interior, pero ahora ella era distanta. Yo era distinta. Y era algo que ya estaba hecho, algo que ya no podía cambiar."--Back cover.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never...

High Spirits is a collection of eleven interconnected short stories from the Dominican diaspora, from debut author Camille Gomera-Tavarez. It is a book centered on one extended family - the Beléns - across multiple generations. It is set in the fictional small town of Hidalpa - and Santo Domingo and Paterson and San Juan and Washington Heights too. It is told in a style both utterly real and distinctly magical - and its stories explore machismo,...