the white hot
QUIARA’S DEBUT NOVEL OUT ON NOVEMBER 11, 2025
“In The White Hot, Quiara Alegría Hudes has written the brown-Latina modern-day Siddartha Hermann Hesse never saw coming. Here is a necessary takedown of the patriarchy, a book written for everyone, but especially for us whose moms fled because escaping was the only option. I wish this masterpiece existed for teenage me. Gracias Hudes for gifting us April Soto, a force of a voice that will stay with me forever.”
—Javier Zamora, author of Solito
“April Soto has fled her life but has left us The White Hot—at once a reclaiming, a credo, and a heartrending letter to a beloved daughter from an unforgettable mother. In wise, searing prose, Quiara Alegría Hudes fills in a daughter’s lost history while treating us to a stunning debut about the passions that whisper: to honor what you love, leave. The White Hot articulates our beautiful, unspeakable wildernesses. . . . Dignified, sexy, and true, with lines (‘A mother is a life sentence’; ‘How could love look like leaving?’) burned indelibly into my heart.”
—Marie-Helene Bertino, author of Beautyland
“Quiara Alegría Hudes grabs the heart and clenches it in this propulsive narrative that I read in one sitting. One of the most heart wrenching literary rides you will ever take in your life. Ruthless, visceral, immersive, uncompromising, and relentless, The White Hot is a provocative look at unyielding fierce women. This is the kind of book you will read and immediately want to buy for all the mothers and daughters in your life. An extraordinary debut!”
—Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana
“Bold and utterly original, The White Hot is a literary family thriller that reckons with the price we—and those we leave behind—must pay for our freedom. It is primordial scream meets brilliant argument, and it will forever change what you think is possible for art to achieve.”
—Jennifer Croft, author of The Extinction of Irena Rey