Feature image credit: @latinasleyendo
After such a great year of Latinx releases in 2020, we weren’t sure 2021 could top it. But sure enough, the list of most anticipated books by Latinx authors for 2021 is looking incredible.
Looking for an empowering and heartwarming body-positive YA novel from a debut author or maybe a masterful literary fiction novel from a seasoned, award winning author? This list has got you covered. Below are some of the most anticipated 2021 releases by Latinx authors. So, start making some room on your bookshelves because you definitely won’t want to miss these titles.
2021 Books by Latinx authors
One of the Good Ones by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite (Jan 5, 2021)
The sister-writer duo Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite are back with their sophomore novel! One of the Good Ones is a must-read contemporary YA novel that explores loss, prejudice, sisterhood, activism and what it truly means to be an ally. When teen social activist Kezi Smith is killed under mysterious circumstances after attending a social justice rally, her sister Happi is left reeling and mourning. But then Happi begins to question the idealized way her sister is remembered as “one of the good ones”. Her journey to rediscover her relationship with her sister will take her through twists and turns she never expected.
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado (Feb 2, 2021)
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega is a funny, tender, and highly anticipated coming of age YA novel that follows Charlie, a smart, artistic, fat brown girl living in a predominantly white Connecticut suburb as pursuits her writing dreams, resists her mother’s weight loss schemes and starts a relationship with her cute classmate Brian. Everything seems to be going well until she learns that Brian asked her slimer, more popular friend Amelia out first. Crystal Maldonado takes a critical eye to mother-daughter relationships, and how our culture can shape our relationship with our body.
Infinite Country by Patricia Engel (Feb 23, 2021)
Award-winning, internationally acclaimed author Patricia Engel brings us a stunning new story that follows a mixed-status Colombian family. When Mauro and Elena move to the United States seeking economic opportunities they intend to stay just long enough to make some money to send back to Elena’s mother. But when their dual citizen children are born Mauro and Elena’s must make the decision to go back or to overstay their tourist visas. This is an urgent and look at the devastating effects that separation can wreck on one family.
What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster (Mar 2, 2021)
Naima Coster, the finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction for her debut novel Halsey Street, is back with a new hard-hitting yet tender novel that you won’t want to miss. What’s Mine and Yours follows two families during the aftermath of a school integration initiative in North Carolina. Coster brilliantly examines the messy and sometimes painful intersections between family and race, past and present, and the lengths that parents will go to secure a better future for their children.
The Soul of a Woman Isabel Allende (Mar 2, 2021)
Known for her sweeping historical novels like “Portrait in Sepia” and “The House of the Spirits”, beloved and prolific author Isabel Allende brings us an intimate reflection on her own life story this time. Allende explores on her coming of age and feminist awakening in the 1960s, her professional growth and flourishing as a writer, and her personal journey through three marriages. At once a reflection of one woman’s past and a meditation on the fights and future of the feminist movement, The Soul of a Woman is both a celebration and a call to action.
The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore (Mar 16, 2021)
Anna-Marie McLemore boasts an unparalleled talent for blending fantasy elements with razor-sharp social commentary and wrapping it all in a story with characters you cannot help but root for. McLemore’s latest upcoming story follows two teens, Graciela and Lock as they forge a budding friendship based on a shared trauma of sexual assault, a deadly mirrored glass, and a possibly magical panaderia.
Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia (Apr 6, 2021)
In Gabriela Garcia’s highly anticipated debut novel we follow the story of two women, Jeanette and her mother Carmen, a Cuban immigrant, as each of them wrestle with their own ghosts, their diasporic identity and their relationship to each other. In vivid and beautiful prose, Garcia takes us from 19th century Cuba to present-day Miami and vividly explores the trauma of displacement, memory and legacy, and familial ties. This is truly a debut you won’t want to miss!
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