• New York Times Bestseller

• Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize Winner

• New York City Book Awards Winner

• Gotham Book Prize Finalist

• International Latino Book Awards Finalist

• Good Morning America Buzz Pick

• Indie Next Selection for January 2022

• Book of the Month Club Selection

BEST BOOK of 2022 by The New York Times, The Book Report, TIME, Kirkus, NPR, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, New York Post, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Vogue, Audible, Reader’s Digest, Esquire, the BBC, and more!

SUMMER READING RECOMMENDATION by Washington Post, The View, TODAY, WNYC, Conde Nast Traveler, Vogue Australia, Real Simple, Goodreads, and more!

MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK of 2022 by TIME, Parade, Apple Books, Goodreads, Bustle, Kirkus, Barnes & Noble, Book Riot, The Rumpus, Boston Globe, and more!  

Praise for Olga Dies Dreaming

“Liberation is at the heart of Olga Dies Dreaming. The story’s driving tension derives from questions of how to break free... The book’s title is an allusion to the poem ‘Puerto Rican Obituary,’ by Pedro Pietri, which contains the lines ‘Olga / dies dreaming of a real jewelry.’ But Gonzalez’s Olga will not go meekly to such a fate. Sometimes we must free ourselves—even from dreams.” 

—The New York Times Book Review

“A thoughtfully depicted romantic comedy full of domestic strife, executed in Gonzalez’s vibrant prose.”  

—TIME

“Olga Dies Dreaming is a beautiful force—completely unique in its intricacies yet universal in the characters’ desires to be loved and understood.”

—Associated Press

“Rarely does a novel, particularly a debut novel, contend so powerfully and so delightfully with such a vast web of personal, cultural, political and even international imperatives.”

—The Washington Post  

“This debut book is a gossipy, funny NYC novel with a multigenerational queer and straight cast of characters you feel like you know, layered on top of a Puerto Rican political and historical thriller. It’s groaning with themes, like the table at a family dinner—it’s about secrets, ethics, power, identity, activism, love, guilt, and healing.”

—NPR

“[An] edifying debut... Gonzalez elevates this family drama with a great deal of insight on the characters’ diaspora and politics.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Hilarious… A sprawling dramedy of love, politics, blackmail and real estate featuring a Puerto Rican family in Brooklyn.”

—People

“Atmospheric, intelligent, and well informed: an impressive debut.” 

—Kirkus, starred review 

“A wonderful and thought-provoking story.”

—Book Riot

“Olga Dies Dreaming intricately presents its flawed characters working through the meaning of cultural identity, family secrets, grief, and self-preservation. Their stories capture the ways in which we sometimes define ourselves by how others see us—to often painful ends.”

—Book of the Month

“This deeply satisfying and nuanced novel shines a light on political corruption and the limits of capitalism.”

—The Guardian

“A vivid and often beautiful journey.”

—The Seattle Times

“In her ambitious debut novel, Gonzalez explores such weighty topics as coercion, rape, gentrification, and the colonial exploitation… Shining throughout, however, is the redeeming quality of love in all its iterations: romantic, fraternal, paternal, patriotic, and ultimately, love of self.”

—Booklist

“In Xochitl Gonzalez’s gripping debut, the shadow of their absent mother, a Puerto Rican independence activist, looms over the political and personal choices of two adult siblings living in Brooklyn.”

—Vanity Fair

“A rom-com that also deals with family and healing—and acknowledges the way all these kinds of love are connected.”

—TODAY

“Vibrant and raw… Olga Dies Dreaming delivers a roller coaster’s worth of beautiful highs and lows. All told, it’s an experience worth savoring.”

—BookPage

'“In this technicolor novel from an astounding new voice, we meet Olga and Prieto Acevedo… Packed with richly imagined characters and vivacious prose, the novel asks how we can live meaningful lives in a world rife with inequality.” 

—Esquire

“For lovers of fiction, Olga Dies Dreaming doesn’t simply demand your attention—it seizes your attention by the huevos and doesn’t let go until you turn the last page. For Puerto Rican and Boricua readers, Gonzalez and her characters breathe new life into the age-old adage, ‘Pa'lante.’”

—Jezebel