THE WHITE HOT

by Quiara Alegria Hudes

When a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright publishes her first novel, and that novel is recommended by Lin Manuel Miranda, it doesn’t take long for me to request it from my local library and devour it as soon as it arrives. This slim and poetic debut is heartbreaking and hopeful in equal measure, and certainly not to be missed.

April is a young, single mother raising her daughter in an apartment with her own mother and grandmother. Each of the adults is doing what they can to keep their household safe and cared for, but both April and her daughter have trouble regulating their big emotions. After one particularly fraught dinner, April leaves.

The majority of The White Hot takes the form of a letter that April writes to her daughter years after she leaves.  She tries to explain why she went and what she experienced on her journey. Both her language and her experiences are so raw, I felt like I was  living right alongside April. After making some massive, dangerous decisions, April realizes there is no one answer about how to live or love. I won’t forget this explosive story of April’s journey to discover her own way of living for a very long time. (Lily)