The Neruda I loved and cared about was the Neruda who made "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair" sound like it emerged from longing and not from anything that he might do. But this Neruda, who would make up exoticized women to turn into fetishes as part of his creative schtick, made my heart sink into my stomach.

I have never been able to shake having lunch with a Pulitzer Prize-winning author in Berkeley before leaving the Bay Area and asking her what she thought about having a child. “It is,” she said, “A ball and chain. You will be shackled for life.”

So much of the story of our people is framed by slavery and struggle. Love is the only respite or solution, and, of course, even that is fraught because of the weight of shackles.

These three books give us flesh and blood, beating hearts you’ll still be able to hear long after the books are closed. I can’t say it will be easy reading, but I can promise it will be worthwhile.