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Book Reviewed by:After 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...
Havana, 1958. 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...
Miami, 2017. 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. Elisa's last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth.
Arriving in Havana, Marisol comes face-to-face with the contrast of Cuba's tropical, timeless beauty and its perilous political climate. 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.
Chanel Cleeton's Next Year in Havana, received overwhelmingly positive reviews from our First Impression readers, averaging an overall rating of 4.7, including these comments:
The author has a wonderful ability to paint a picture of Havana and Cuba so that you can see the places and settings. I especially enjoyed the author's fine, lyrical writing and the passionate and realistic characters she created...The juxtaposition of conditions in 1958 Cuba with present day Cuba was excellent. The characters were flawed and multi-dimensional. The storyline kept me turning pages rapidly and made me even more anxious to visit this beautiful but complicated country...continued
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(Reviewed by First Impressions Reviewers).
Next Year in Havana is partially set during the Cuban Revolution (1953-1959). Che Guevara (1928-1967) was one of the Revolution's central figures. Although he does not appear directly in Next Year in Havana, the cause he fought for forms the backdrop to much of the story.
Born Ernesto Guevara de la Serna in Rosario, Argentina, Guevara was the eldest of the five children in his middle-class family. As a young man he studied medicine at the University of Buenos Aires and traveled widely throughout South and Central American while on breaks. During these excursions, he witnessed widespread poverty and oppression. His 1951 motorcycle trip through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama and Miami (immortalized in ...
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Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for ...
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Alix Rickloff, author of On the Way to London
Chanel Cleeton delivers an amazing and captivating read!
