Celso Gonzalez-Falla

What a delightful read. Learning about other cultures and people is one of my favorite things and, although this book is fiction, it's also based on part of the author's life. The people of Cuba in the 1950s were charming and interesting. Readers will learn something about sugar farming and raising cattle and show animals. Wealthy Cuban families kept household help and farm help, and their lives are intertwined with those of their employees.

Before Castro, this was Cuba -- serene, family-oriented, productive, religious, and getting scarier. Some of the history of Cuba during this time comes to life as it affects real families. This family saga, set during increasingly changing times, is lovely and heartbreaking, since nearly everyone in the book had to leave their homeland once Castro came to power.

Enjoy this family's years of sweetness and togetherness, their hard work, their ethics, loves, joys, sorrows, and their beloved homeland. Books like this need to be written.

The author kindly included a personal note that seemed special and will remain with the book.… (mehr)