Lorna’s Reviews > This Is the Only Kingdom > Status Update

“One day, you wake up and realize that people move through your life like the seasons, that everything you thought you knew about them, and yourself, was a lie.”

“All those promises the church had made about eternal life, about heaven. . . . . And how many times had she heard them describe the sins that would keep Tito—and Nena—from the kingdom of heaven? But hell wasn’t real, and heaven was no kingdom. This, she wanted to tell them all, this is the only kingdom. Everything else was a lie.”

“Families had lived en el campo or on the beach since before Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony, but the American government didn’t recognize handwritten documents in Spanish and didn’t recognize verbal agreements.”

“It was late afternoon, and the smells of early fall were hanging in the air as the granos vendor pushed his cart back towards the gate: rice and cheese granos fried to a crisp, the overripe passion fruit falling off the hanging vines that ran along the outskirts of the neighborhood, clean laundry drying on the lines, motor oil, dog shit, the sweaty guys running around the court, red beans on some nearby stove.”