“Enthralling... a masterful work.”
— The Washington Post

Praise for Marisel Vera’s Writing

“Illuminating.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine

“A sweeping, emotional tale.”
— Kirkus

“A majestic work.”
— Cristina Garcia, author of Dreaming in Cuban

“Subtle yet arresting… a gorgeous feat of storytelling.”
— Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

Meet Marisel Vera

Marisel Vera is a proud Boricua writer from Humboldt Park, Chicago. Through her work, Vera explores the particular burdens that Puerto Ricans, on the island and throughout the diaspora, carry as colonial subjects of the United States.

Her acclaimed novel, The Taste of Sugar (Liveright), a tale of love and endurance on the eve of the Spanish American War, follows two Puerto Rican families as Puerto Rico’s colonial masters change from Spain to the United States. Vera is also the author of If I Bring You Roses (Grand Central), a story about a Puerto Rican couple who, like thousands of their compatriots, leave the island to work in US factories during the Puerto Rican government’s infamous Operation Bootstrap.

Vera is also the writer of You Can’t Cover the Sky With Your Hand, a play about the government weaponizing reproductive procedures, including sterilization, against Puerto Rican women, as las puertorriqueñas struggle for bodily autonomy.

Coming Spring 2027: The Girls from Humboldt Park (Liveright). It’s 1976, and with the United States Bicentennial approaching, Rosalinda Acevedo and her friends meet a group of Puerto Rican Independentistas, who introduce them to a history their parents and their diaspora community in Chicago have kept hidden—one of revolution and resistance. In turn, the girls safeguard secrets of their own, as they navigate family obligations, predatory teachers, and sisterhood.