This was my first foray into Cuban cooking, and I believe into Cuban history or politics.
Next Year in Havana, by Chanel Cleeton, was an eyeopener, for me anyway. I love reading about periods in history and about places I'm unfamiliar with, learning new things, especially when enfolded into an enjoyable, engrossing story. Like this one. Cleeton's novel is told from two perspectives, of those escaping the revolution and of the granddaughter, visiting Cuba for the first time, to scatter her grandmother's ashes.
From the Publisher:
"After the death of her beloved grandmother, a Cuban-American woman travels to Havana, where she discovers the roots of her identity--and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution...
Havana, 1958. The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba's high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country's growing political unrest--until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary...
