Angie Cruz Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Angie Cruz was born in the year 1972 in Washington Heights, New York City and is of Dominican descent. During her childhood, she traveled back and forth between the Dominican Republic and New York City. Angie feels that D.R. is closer and a lot more familiar to her than even downtown Manhattan.

During high school, she studied visual arts, then realized that she wanted to go into fashion. While pursuing a fashion design degree at F. I. T. at night, she worked full time during the day at a cashmere store on Madison Ave. She later studied at SUNY Binghamton and got her bachelor’s, then later got her master’s from New York University.

With “Dominicana”, she had a tough time getting it published, as many editors told her the book was too bleak and quiet, it was not edgy enough. Editors would ask if Juan could be changed around and be more likable and Ana was trapped. She wanted the novel to read this way, for the story to show the claustrophobia of being stuck in a situation, an apartment, with an abusive guy.

She wanted to go against the typical survivor narrative that say yeah, things are tough, in even the most challenging of times, things turn out well, despite the system having a boot on your neck. You just have to find the necessary resources inside yourself. Angie started to realize what she wanted this story to be, and stayed optimistic that somebody would want to buy this novel. She was surprised that she found an editor that comprehended the story she was telling and just allowed her to write the book she wanted to.

She is an associate professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, and the editor in chief and founder of Aster(ix), an arts and literary journal.

Her work has been published in VQR, The New York Times, and Gulf Coast Literary, as well as other publications. She has gotten fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the New York Foundation of the Arts.

“Let It Rain Coffee” was a finalist for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in the year 2007. “Dominicana” was long listed for the Andrew Carnegie award for excellence in fiction for 2019.

Angie’s debut novel, called “Soledad”, was released in the year 2001. Her work is literary fiction. She cites her ideal readership to be women. She writes novels that are close to home for her and are relatable to others and they act as a way of giving readers some hope. As she is writing, she tries tapping into the feelings of feeling lost, not knowing the local language, and disempowered in some place that she has traveled to or lived in.

“Soledad” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2001. At only eighteen, Soledad could not get away from her contentious family quickly enough with all of their petty fights and tragedies. Two years later, she is an art student at Cooper Union with a hip East Village walk-up. Tia Gorda calls her up with the news that Soledad’s mom has lapsed into an emotional coma, she insists that Soledad coming back is the one and only cure.

Fighting all the memories off of leering guys, open hydrants, and slick-skinned teens with snapping gum and raunchy mouths, Soledad goes back to her home on West 164th Street. While she attempts taming the raucous behavior of Flaca, her cousin, and resist the urge to fall for Richie, who is a soulful and intense man from the neighborhood, she confronts the biggest challenge of her entire life. Facing off against ghosts from her mom’s past and trying to repair the damaged relationship the two have.

“Let It Rain Coffee” is the second stand alone novel and was released in the year 2005. Esperanza risked her very life leaving the Dominican Republic for that glittering dream she was always seeing on television, but all these years later she is still stuck in the cramped tenement with Santo, her husband, and Bobby and Dallas, their two kids. She works as a home aide and she hides unopened bills from the credit card company in places Santo cannot find them when he comes back from driving his livery taxi.

Santo’s mom dies and Don Chan, Santo’s dad, comes to Nueva York to live out his final years with the Colons, and nothing will ever be the same. Don Chan remembers the time he fought with Santo in the revolution against the cruel regime of Trujillo, as well as the promise of who his son could have been, provided he did not fall under Esperanza’s spell.

“Dominicana” is the third stand alone novel and was released in the year 2019. Ana Cancion, fifteen years old, never once dreamed of moving to America, the way that the girls in the Dominican countryside once did. When Juan Ruiz proposes to her and promises that he will take her to New York City, she must say yes. It doesn’t even matter that there is no love between them and that he is two times her age. Their marriage is just a chance for her whole close family to eventually leave the country.

On New Year’s Day of 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she has known and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife that is confined to a chilly six-floor walk-up out in Washington Heights. Miserable and lonely, Ana comes up with a reckless plan to attempt an escape. At the bus terminal, she gets stopped by Cesar, Juan’s free-spirited little brother, who convinces her to stay.

While the Dominican Republic slides right into some political turmoil, Juan goes back to protect all of his family’s assets, leaving Cesar behind to take care of Ana. All of a sudden, Anna is free to start taking English lessons at one of the local churches, see a movie at Radio City Music Hall, lie on the beach at Coney Island, go dancing with Cesar, and dream of the possibility of a different kind of a life in America. Juan returns, and Ana has to choose once more between the duty to her family and her heart.