15 Novels by Dominican Authors We're Immediately Adding to Our Fall Reading List

Julia Alvarez's latest, Afterlife ($24), departs quite a bit from the other two novels mentioned here. It's about a woman whose life turns tumultuous when her husband suddenly dies right after she retires from the college where she taught English for years. Her sister disappears and one day, a pregnant undocumented teenager shows up at her home. She finds there are no answers to the chaos she's in the midst of and instead she must embrace each challenge as it arises, with an open heart and an open mind. It's a quick read, but a poignant one.