2018 copyright 394 pages
The book follows the lives of two women decades apart – Elisa and Marisol.
Elisa is the daughter of a sugar baron in 1950’s Cuba. Her parents do their best to shelter Elisa and her sisters from the political turmoil sweeping their country, when Batista fell and Fidel Castro rose to power; until Elisa falls in love with Pablo, a revolutionary close to Castro. She eventually must make some hard choices of staying in Cuba or fleeing to the United States with the rest of her family leaving behind more than just her home and belongings.
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Marisol is a Cuban American, who grew up hearing the romantic stories of Cuba from her grandmother, Elisa, and clearly identifies herself as Cuban. When Elisa passes away, she asked her granddaughter to spread her ashes in her beloved home country, Cuba. Marisol travels to Cuba to learn more about her grandmother and her family’s past lives. She experiences first-hand the personal, political and sometimes dangerous struggles of Cubans today.
The story is part political and part romance. It takes you on a journey through Cuba’s political history, the joys and struggles of unstable times; and provides a powerful lesson in what it means to have freedom, not just on paper but in everyday real life. The story is well-written and was a Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Book Club selection in 2019.