A genre-bending debut with a fiercely political heart, A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens explores the weight of the devil’s bargain, following the lengths one man will go to for the promise of freedom.
Hugo Contreras’s world in Miami has shrunk. Since his wife died, Hugo’s debt from her medical bills has become insurmountable. He shuffles between his efficiency apartment, La Carreta (his favorite place for a cafecito), and a botanica in a strip mall where he works as the resident babaláwo.
One day, Hugo’s nemesis calls. Alexi Ramirez is a debt collector who has been hounding Hugo for years, and Hugo assumes this call is just more of the same. Except this time Alexi is calling because he needs spiritual help. His house is haunted. Alexi proposes a deal: If Hugo can successfully cleanse his home before Noche Buena, Alexi will forgive Hugo’s debt. Hugo reluctantly accepts, but there’s one issue: Despite being a babaláwo, he doesn’t believe in spirits.
Hugo plans to do what he’s done with dozens of clients before: use sleight of hand and amateur psychology to convince Alexi the spirits have departed. But when the job turns out to be more than Hugo bargained for, Hugo’s old tricks don’t work. Memories of his past—his childhood in the Bolivian silver mines and a fraught crossing into the United States as a boy—collide with Alexi’s demons in an explosive climax.
Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens explores questions of visibility, migration, and what we owe—to ourselves, our families, and our histories.
A HAUNTING IN HIALEAH GARDENS
Raul Palma
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve finished AHIHG. I still don’t know what I think about it. The nature of the haunting that I found horrific isn’t in the synopsis. So, I’m left wondering if I imagined it, or inferred too much.
It was scary to me.
Oversexed, overextended, and nonbeliever, Hugo performs spiritual rituals he doesn’t believe in and values his relationships based upon what can be gained, and what can be acquired. Since his wife died, he’s had little hope, nothing to believe in, and even less to live for. He lives a life of lack and his indebtedness introduces itself first in conversations.
Hugo owes Alexi more than he can ever repay in his lifetime. However, Alexi offers Hugo a chance to settle his debts.
All he must do is believe.
A HAUNTING IN HIALEAH GARDENS is about the immutable nature of death. Where simple choices lead to unintended consequences. Things you never knew mattered happen to matter the most. And at that point, you realize you are the one arbiter of this one and only life you have. It is all up to you, and it has been this way the whole time.
That’s some scary shit!
Thanks to Netgalley, PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, Dutton, and Penguin Random House Audio for the advanced copies!
A HAUNTING I HIALEAH GARDENS…⭐️⭐️⭐️
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