Review: Next Year in Havana and When We Left Cuba

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Trufax: On my paternal side, I'm of Cuban/Spanish/Portuguese origins. I was born and largely raised in Miami and my feelings about Cuba, Fidel, Che, and Batista are complex and marked by the fact that my father was actually born in Key West in 1938, when a good fraction of his family left Cuba. Thus, they were at a remove from those who left after Batista fled Cuba, and not part of the wealthy elite Cuban community that fled after Fidel seized power. My father seldom spoke Spanish at home, and I was raised feeling far more American than some of my Cuban-by-birth school chums. The anti-Castro fervor of their families was something I felt indirectly and almost skeptically, since so many of them talked about going back to Cuba and recovering their lost property and businesses. I remember once arguing with a friend about how that would work, and would they really kick families living in their former home out onto the street after they had been living there for decades ("absolutely" I was told). So when I received this book, I hesitated. "Next Year in Havana" is a real toast at New Year's Eve celebrations. It's a genuine sentiment in a part of the exile community. I've also had my share of friends who came to Florida as Marielitos, or as some of the miracle survivors who made it to dry land (a reference to the wet foot/dry foot policy) after finding other routes via the Bahamas or such. They seldom want to go back to Cuba. For them, the Castro years have grievously injured their perceptions of Cuba, filling them with painful memories and broken, struggling families. I was apprehensive about what this novel might portray about Cuba, the sugar baron families, the revolution, and the exile community in Florida. I'm glad to report that I was wrong to be apprehensive and that Chanel Cleeton has written a novel that examines many facets of Cuba during the Cuban Revolution.

Marisol Ferrera is a travel journalist who pitches a story about a newly accessible Cuba to her editor in order to travel to Cuba to fulfill her late grandmother Elisa Perez's wish to have her ashes scattered on Cuban soil. She goes intending to travel and simply meet some friends of her grandmother's- Elisa's former best friend Ana, her former nanny, Magda- but what she finds is an unexpected mystery. Her grandmother had a secret relationship with a man who was involved in the revolution, who was a friend of Che's. Over the course of the book, which alternates between present-day Marisol and 1959 Eliza, the mystery deepens for Marisol along with her understanding of what life in Cuba is really like for those trapped under Fidel's dictatorship.

I listened to the audiobook of this novel, beautifully narrated by Kyla Garcia.

I enjoyed this novel and immediately wanted to tear into When We Left Cuba, which is about Elisa's dazzling older sister Beatriz and her adjustment to life in the US after the Perez family leaves Cuba in 1959.


I received a paper Advance Review Copy of this novel from the publisher in 2018.

When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When We Left Cuba picks up where Next Year in Havana leaves off, albeit with Eliza Perez's glamorous and headstrong older sister Beatriz as the focus of the novel. Beatriz is the beautiful sister, the one her parents count on making a spectacular marriage that will reset the exiled family's fortunes and social standing. Beatriz, who even back in Havana wanted to go to law school, could not have a more different plan. After the murder of her brother Alejandro at the hands of someone involved in the revolution (Fidel? Che? someone going after him for his attempt to assassinate Batista?) Beatriz wants justice or maybe revenge. Most of all, she wants Cuba back. After months of living in Palm Beach, on the periphery of society life, Beatriz and Alejandro's childhood friend Eduardo introduces her to Mr. Dwyer, a CIA operative with an eye on destabilizing the Castro regime or even assassinating Castro. Around this same time, however, she meets Nick Preston, scion of a powerful, old-money family. Newly engaged to a woman of similar social standing and running for the US Senate, Nick and Beatriz are drawn to one another, despite their age difference, differing philosophies, and desires and despite all social convention. Embarking on a scandalous affair and a career as a spy couldn't be farther from her parents' aspirations. Of course, Beatriz is all-in. The twists and turns that lie ahead are fraught with real dangers, however. Set during the Kennedy administration and after Fidel's death in 2016, the novel gives us a view of two different periods in Beatriz's life.

This was another enjoyable read. Beatriz is such a colorful character and a woman ahead of her time. While some might find her unbelievably unconventional for the era in which the story takes place, I do have evidence in my own paternal family of women who cut their own path and refused to marry, making a life for themselves on their own terms outside of social norms for the era. (Of course, it helps a lot if you have money and powerful friends and are strikingly beautiful...)

The audiobook is nicely narrated by Kyla Garcia, who also narrated Next Year in Havana.

~ ~ ~

Want to buy a copy of Next Year in Havana from your local independent bookstore? Click HERE. When We Left Cuba is HERE.

Want to buy the audiobook copy of Next Year in Havana and have a portion of the sale benefit your local independent bookstore? Click HERE. When We Left Cuba is HERE.

Want your eBook purchase of Next Year in Havana to benefit independent bookstores? Click HERE. When We Left Cuba is HERE.

Follow Marzie's Reads on Bloglovin'

View all my reviews on Goodreads

© Marzie's Reads 2017-2020, All Rights Reserved.