By Chanel Cleeton
After I finished Halsey Street and Exiled in America I was eager to read something a little more lighthearted and entertaining. While I enjoyed both books, they were each heavy in their own ways. So I was excited to start Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton.
Next Year in Havana is a dual-timeline historical fiction novel with romance, family drama and mystery; in other words, it was right up my alley!
In 1958 Elisa Perez’s world is rapidly changing. Her father is a wealthy sugar baron, and the revolution begins to turn her life in Cuban high society upside down. As revolutionaries fight for freedom and blood flows in the streets, Elisa must confront the role her family plays in reinforcing the corruption of the old regime.
When she meets Pablo she Elisa is immediately drawn to his passion, assurance and love for his country, but his revolutionary beliefs threaten everything her family stands for. He challenges her to seek freedom from the constraints of her family’s traditional beliefs in the new Cuba. As the revolution progresses, Elisa must decide whether her loyalties lie with her family or her country. She is also simply trying to survive in violent and turbulent times when being in the wrong place at the wrong time can mean death.
Sixty years later Elisa’s granddaughter Marisol visits Cuba for the first time to scatter her grandmother’s ashes. Marisol grew up in Florida among a vibrant Cuban exile community. American and Cuban relations are starting to thaw after the death of Castro, but Marisol’s family still warns her not to trust the government. In Cuba she is not guaranteed the rights and freedoms she enjoys as an American, and as a journalist and member of a prominent Cuban family she is a potential target for government surveillance.
As Marisol tries to find the perfect place to spread her grandmother’s ashes she begins to uncover secrets about that the grandmother she thought she knew. Marisol searches for the truth about Elisa and discovers a modern Cuba that is completely different from the Cuba of her grandmother’s stories and the Cuban community where she grew up.
On her search for answers Marisol meets Luis, a history professor who is passionate about improving Cuba. His love of Cuba causes Marisol to question her identity as both a Cuban and American. Luis and Marisol grow closer as he helps Marisol investigate her family history, but the deeper they dive into the past the more they must be wary of the lurking Cuban police state.
I enjoyed both Elisa and Marisol’s stories and the way Cleeton tied them together. The book was nothing groundbreaking. I have read many like it and predicted a significant amount of the ending when I was on page 124, but that did not lessen my enjoyment.
In particular I loved reading about Cuba. One of mom’s best friends is a Cuban-American, and this story gave me new perspectives about her family’s experiences as exiles and emigrants. I was unfamiliar with the history of the revolution, so I liked learning more about Castro, the 26th of July and all the different revolutionary groups. It was interesting to see how passion for change and improvement morphed into a new form of tyranny and greed without foresight, planning and checks on power. The nerdy economist part of my brain started thinking about institutions and the factors that make some revolutions fail and others succeed. I started mentally comparing the the French, American and Cuban revolutions, but the stories of Marisol and Elisa drew me back.
I got this book recommendation from Grace Atwood of The Stripe; I always get good books from her monthly book reviews! I put it on hold at the library, and it was ready for me at the same time as four other books, so it was a race against the clock to finish reading before the due date. Luckily time was not an issue, as I read this one in a few days. If you are looking for something easy and romantic, with a touch of history and family drama I definitely recommend this book.
ThriftingUp 