Kimberly Garza Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Kimberly Garza is a published American author.

She is a native of Texas as she was born in the state in the city of Galveston and was raised in Uvalde. She received her PhD in creative writing as well as Chicanx literature from the University of North Texas. She also serves as a tenure track assistant professor of creative writing and literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

She is half Mexican-American and half Filipina-American. Kimberly has had her work published in such places as Creative Nonfiction, TriQuarterly, Bennington Review, and more. She has also received scholarships from Breadloaf as well as The Michener Center for Writers. Her debut novel is titled The Last Karankawas.

The Last Karankawas is a 2022 novel by Kimberly Garza. If you have been looking for a unique book set in a niche world and want to experience a fresh new voice in fiction, check this book out! Great if you’re a fan of authors such as Cristina Henriquez or Yaa Gyasi, it’s the emotionally-charged story about a close community of Mexican and Filipino American families living on the Texas coast.

Galveston, Texas at this time has a population of 50,241. For main character Carly Castillo, the only place that she has ever really been able to know is Albacore Avenue. When she was a young child, she was abandoned by her Filipina mother and her Mexican-American father.

Carly comes back every morning from her nursing shift back to the house that she shares with Magdalena, her grandmother. When Magdalena more and more begins to shift into dementia, it’s difficult for Carly and she starts dreaming of a life that is lived elsewhere.

Jess Rivera is her boyfriend. He’s a former all-star shortstop who turned to the water. As a seaman, he is able to treasure the salty island air that is so familiar to him. He had the opportunity years ago to leave Galveston behind to go to a new and bigger city that had more possibilities. He did not go then and he isn’t going to now.

Moving through the lives of these characters and that of the individuals who are around them are a cast of characters. These include Mercedes, the undocumented cousin of Jess. They also include Kristin, the daytime nurse of Magdalena, Luz, the wife of Carly’s best friend, Schafer, a coworker of Jess out on the gulf. Through these people, a mosaic is presented of how it is to survive each day in southern Texas.

As word goes around of a storm that is getting stronger offshore, building into Hurricane Ike, each of them is going to have to make a really tough decision. They can either board up the windows and then hunker down or they can go inland and leave their home behind.

Singular, insightful, and lyrical, this debut novel is a picture of America that is rarely witnessed. It is one where palm trees going brown and oily waters show the forefront of ecological change. It is an exploration of human perseverance, familial inheritance, and the histories that we give ourselves. It also is an example of a great new voice in the literary fiction world, so check out a copy and see what you think!

Between You a River is the second book to come out from Kimberly Garza. It is the family drama tale all about two sisters who come back to the ancestral land of their family in the Philippines, where secrets that have been buried for a long time start to come out after their mother passes away.

The passing of Corazon de la Cruz was something that shook her family to its core. These days, her daughters have still not processed all of it and are picking up the pieces. Hannah is doing her best to continue the legacy of her mother working as a doctor in Uvalde, Texas. This is a community that is dealing with its grief after going through a school shooting.

Then there’s Mari, a woman who has gone as far from her home as it is possible to do, all while going through an ill-fated romance that is taking place across the world. Massively estranged not only from each other but from their Filipino roots, a distant cousin reaches out and urges them to come back to the island of Mindoro in order to finally resolve some still-unsettled family business.

Everyone is together for the first time in a long time, as it’s been years since they were with each other as well as their Filipino relatives. The sisters discover that the fate of the ancestral land owned by their family is indeed in their hands, although it is about to slip away.

They do their best to try and protect their homeland. Along the way, they deal with secrets that have been hidden from them by their matriarch, having to do with the land, her life, and them too. A family saga as well as a literary love letter to the Philippines and Texas, this novel goes along with two sisters who are dealing with the legacy that their mother left behind, as well as their dual identities and the lifelong longing for home. Read this novel to absorb every bit of the story word for word yourself!