Nilda
Nicholasa Mohr's first novel follows Nilda Ramirez, a girl growing up in El Barrio, New York's Spanish Harlem, during the early 1940s. Over a few years Nilda navigates a crowded apartment, a struggling family, and a world of teachers, nurses, and officials who too often treat poor Puerto Rican children with contempt. Through it all she keeps a private inner life rich with daydreams and drawing. The book was hailed on publication as a rare honest portrait of a Puerto Rican childhood in the city and named an outstanding book of the year by The New York Times. Lin-Manuel Miranda has called it the first book he read about Puerto Ricans growing up in New York, like him.
What you might want to know about Nilda
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A Puerto Rican girl comes of age in New York's Spanish Harlem during World War II, facing poverty and prejudice while holding onto her imagination.
Miranda read Nilda in sixth grade and has said it was maybe the first book he read about Puerto Ricans growing up in New York, like him, and that it changed how he saw himself.
Nilda was written by Nicholasa Mohr, published in 1973 by Arte Público Press.
Nilda is 292 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Nilda takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Nilda is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.