Book of the Week #42

When Cuba Was Lost: A Novel by Phil Jones (Hancock, NH: Norway Hill Press, 2010)

This novella by Hancock resident Phil Jones tells the story of Esperanza Ramirez, the daughter of an American industrialist who visits Cuba in 1935 and falls in love with a Cuban Naval Cadet, Carlos Mesa. Carlos is a member of the Cuban Youth Movement, a radical organization determined to overthrow the government, and the young lovers are swept up in the violence that brought Fulgensio Batista to power as they struggle to save the life of resistance leader Antonio Guiteras. The book was reviewed recently by Steve Sherman for the Keene Sentinal.

"It was even better than she had imagined. Catching the light from rows of torches lining the drive, the new limousines glinted blacks and greens and reds in sparkling reflections of color among the flashes of gleaming chrome. Polished to perfection, each car drove through a gate guarded by several soldiers and preceded slowly around the circular drive up to the marbled stariway that marked the entrance to the Havana Yacht Club. Within each car were representatives of Cuba's elite. Before the night was out, everybody who was anybody in Cuba in 1935 would be present--all scrubbed and perfumed, resplendent in their finest suits and gowns." (p. 13)