by Carlos Eire
First published 2003
Carlos Eire opens his memoir with a prayer: "Have mercy on me, Lord, I am Cuban." The year is 1962, and eleven-year-old Carlos becomes one of 14,000 children airlifted from Havana as Castro's revolution transforms his homeland. The Cuba of his youth featured lizards basking in tropical heat, turquoise Caribbean waters, and lazy afternoon siestas under the blazing sun. But after the cigar-smoking guerrilla Fidel Castro overthrows President Batista on January 1, 1959, paradise turns into a prison. Street music now resembles gunfire. The government bans Christmas celebrations. Political opponents face imprisonment. Carlos watches his friends disappear, fleeing to the distant and unimaginable United States. Soon Carlos follows the same path, separated from his family and everything familiar. He will grow into the modern American man his mother envisioned, yet his heart remains forever anchored to the island he left behind. This National Book Award winner captures both the loss of innocence and the ache of permanent displacement.
Genres: historical-fiction, autobiography, memoir, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Cuba, Havana, United States
Period: 1959, 1962
400 pages · Kindle Edition · Free Press