Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Post any books set in Cuba here.

Books set in Cuba:


The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
Before Night Falls: A Memoir by Reinaldo Arenas
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez
The Island of Eternal Love by Daina Chaviano
Paradiso by José Lezama Lima
The Red Umbrella by Christina Gonzalez
Beautiful Maria of My Soul by Oscar Hijuelos
Raining Sardines by Enrique Flores-Galbis
Three Trapped Tigers by Guillermo Cabrera Infante
Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia
Loving Che by Ana Menendez
The Agüero Sisters by Cristina Garcia
The Color of Summer: or The New Garden of Earthly Delights by Reinaldo Arenas
Finding Mañana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus by Mirta Ojito
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle
Havana Nocturne by T. English
Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard
Our Man In Havana by Graham Greene
Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner
The Firefly Letters by Margarita Engle
Cold Havana Ground by Arnaldo Correa
A Simple Habana Melody: by Oscar Hijuelos
Broken Paradise by Cecilia Samartin
Farewell to the Sea: A Novel of Cuba by Reinaldo Arenas
Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba by Margarita Engle
Dancing with Cuba: A Memoir of the Revolution by Alma Guillermoprieto
The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle
Havana Bay by Martin Cruz Smith
Havana Red by Leonardo Padura Fuentes
Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause by Tom Gjelten
Monkey Hunting by Cristina Garcia
Cuba and the Night: A Novel by Pico Iyer
Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway
Singing from the Well by Reinaldo Arenas
The Sugar King of Havana by John Paul Rathbone
Fidel Castro by Fidel Castro
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd by Ana Menendez
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
Havana Noir by Achy Obejas
Versos Sencillos: Simple Verses by José Martí
Days of Awe by Achy Obejas
Dear First Love: A Novel by Zoé Valdés
This Is What Happened in Our Other Life by Achy Obejas
Outcast by Jose Latour
Blessed by Thunder: Memoir of a Cuban Girlhood by Flor Fernandez-Barrios
Havana Real by Yoani Sanchez
The Island of Eternal Love by Daina Chaviano

The Messenger by Mayra Montero

One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs

A Prisoner of Morro: In the Hands of the Enemy by Upton Sinclair

Trading with the Enemy by Tom Miller

The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist by Margarita Engle

Captain of the Sleepers: A Novel by Mayra Montero

Pig's Foot: A Novel by Carlos Acosta

The Other Side of Paradise: Life in the New Cuba by Julia Cooke

Listening in Detail: Performances in Cuban Music

The Initials of the Earth by Jesús Díaz

Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub by Rosa Lowinger

Havana Libre by Robert Arellano

Lights Out: A Cuban Memoir of Betrayal and Survival

More books set in Cuba:


33 Revolutions by Canek Sánchez Guevara
90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis
Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems by Dulce María Loynaz
Adios Hemingway by Leonardo Padura
Adiós muchachos by Daniel Chavarría
Afro-Cuban Tales by Lydia Cabrera
The Agüero Sisters by Cristina García
Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
The Assault by Reinaldo Arenas
The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria by Carlos Hernández
The Avocado & the Virtue by Daniel Chavarría
The Beggar's Opera by Peggy Blair (1st book in Inspector Ramirez series)
Being Simon Haines by Tom Vaughan MacAulay

Making a Scene: An Anthology of Short Stories by Cuban Women Writers is an excellent bilingual anthology of stories by Cuban women, Spanish on the lefthand page, English translation on the righthand page with a good introduction by the editor Mirta Yañez and the translator Verity Smith. The book gives an insight into what life has been like for women in Cuba recently. The stand out story for me was Falsos Profetas / False Prophets, an exchange of letters between two friends, Rebecca who has gone to live in Mexico while her friend Naty is left in Cuba looking out for Rebecca's mother.

Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer is an excellent nonfiction book. My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Noel Hynd’s
Hostage in Havana

Cuba: An American History

I am reading this now. I have read many books about Cuba. This non-fiction book is a good, though lengthy overview of Cuban history.

Queens of Havana: The Amazing Adventures of Anacaona, Cuba's Legendary All-Girl Dance Band by Alicia Castro.

The Cubans: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times by Anthony DePalma.

Ay, Cuba! A Socio-Erotic Journey by Andrei Codrescu.

I Gave You All I Had by Zoé Valdés.

Tell It to Me Singing by Tita Ramírez.

My Brigadista Year