My grandfather was able to practice here. Once they left, the government seized their property and everything else they left behind. In the end, the family was allowed to leave as refugees and they boarded a plane with one suitcase and basically the clothes on their backs. That was the world Castro created in Cuba.” And I heard and read many such stories from that time. However, they’d asked to leave earlier, which caused my grandfather to be sent to the country, in effect to work hard labor in the fields.

“My Dad was actually born just a few months after Castro’s rise to power and they left in 1967. Her grandparents lived in the country for the first eight years after the Revolution and were among a later wave of people allowed out. When more family history comes to light and Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she'll need the lessons of her grandmother's past to help her understand the true meaning of courage.Īfter finishing this lovely book and contemplating the many voices that Cleeton was able to articulate in eloquent, sophisticated ways, I was impressed and curious enough to seek the author out.Ĭleeton is half Cuban. Elisa's last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth.Īrriving in Havana, Marisol comes face-to-face with the contrast of Cuba's tropical, timeless beauty and its perilous political climate. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba's high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country's growing political unrest-until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary. I’ve been settling in to a pile of historical fiction lately for Women’s History Month (with a quick reminder that we still have over a week’s worth of authors guest hosting on The Romance of Reading FB page!*).Ī recent title that I found completely compelling and fascinating was Chanel Cleeton’s Next Year In Havana, a dual time line story that takes place in Cuba at the time of the revolution and today.Īfter the death of her beloved grandmother, a Cuban-American woman travels to Havana, where she discovers the roots of her identity-and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution.

Review of next year in havana