A New Interest in Cuba?
Claire Morris
Claire Morris examines the recent popularity of Cuban settings.
It was impossible to miss the travel articles on Cuba. In 2016, it seemed every publication with a US audience was putting out a piece encouraging readers to “get there now.” The reason for this frenzy appeared to stem from Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba in the early part of that year, the first by a sitting American president in nearly a century. Travel restrictions had recently been loosened for US citizens. Perhaps, then, it was natural to ask whether US-based publishers of historical fiction were also seeing Cuba as the next thing. When four novels set partially in Cuba appeared on lists in late 2017, I took on the task of investigating.
Leonardo Padura is possibly the best-known writer living in Cuba today, and it’s important to point out that not only was his novel Heretics (translated by Anna Kushner; Farrar, Straus & Giroux (FSG), US / Bitter Lemon Press, UK, 2017) originally published in 2013 in Spanish, but also that it is one of several featuring his detective Mario Conde. Focusing on a stolen Rembrandt painting and the turning back of the St. Louis and 900 Jewish refugees from Havana harbour in 1939, Heretics is a literary mystery set in Havana from the 20th century through to the present day, and also Amsterdam in the 1600s. The novel Padura penned immediately prior to Heretics, The Man Who Loved Dogs, is also set partially in Cuba and, like Heretics, was published in English by FSG. But this was in early 2014, well before Obama went to Cuba. Although current FSG staff can’t comment on whether the company’s decision to publish Padura’s most recent two novels was linked to politics, it seems clear that it had more to do with sharing wonderful translations of a talented novelist’s work with an English-speaking audience.
Author Chantel Acevedo’s latest novel, The Living Infinite (Europa Editions, 2017), was the second book I looked at for this piece. Following the life of Eulalia, Infanta of Spain in the late 19th century, this literary novel is set only partially in Cuba, which the princess visited en route to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. When I asked Acevedo whether she felt the recent shift in US-Cuba relations has resulted in an increased interest in novels set in Cuba, she commented:
“In general, I think there have been novels set in Cuba coming out pretty regularly. When The Distant Marvels (Europa Editions, 2015) came out right around the time that Obama visited Cuba, friends thought my editor and I had “timed” it, but it was just a coincidence. Cuba is compelling, partly because there’s a whiff of the forbidden about it, for Americans at least, and partly because it’s so tantalizingly close [to the US].”
Since all Acevedo’s adult novels have had Cuba as at least a partial setting (and there have been four of these in the past 12 years), it’s evident that the political climate did not influence her choice of setting or subject matter for The Living Infinite. In fact, only one fifth of this roughly 300-page novel is based in Cuba. She says she fictionalized Eulalia’s story because she found it compelling.
But the writing is one thing. What about the readers? Are US readers more interested in novels linked to Cuba these days?
Rachael Small, Director of Publicity for Europa Editions, says: “Obama’s ‘Cuban thaw’ certainly brought about a rising interest in Cuban voices or stories about Cuba. . . . The Distant Marvels was one of our best-selling novels of 2015 and has continued to find new readers. It’s highly likely that the rising interest in Cuba due to current events at the time that the book was released helped push it into the hands of readers and reviewers, and [Acevedo’s] brilliant storytelling and gorgeous writing sustain it.”
Kate Seaver, the editor who acquired Next Year in Havana (Berkley, 2018) by Chanel Cleeton, believes that US readers have always had an interest in Cuba, but as the possibility to travel to Cuba more easily seemed like an option, that interest grew. “And as that interest grew, I think it heightened interest in books like Chanel’s that explore what it means to be Cuban and Cuban-American,” she says.
“When diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States began to improve during the Obama administration, it heightened American interest in Cuba. Like many Americans, I’ve always been intrigued by the political relationship between the US and Cuba, but my interest was further piqued when it seemed relations were improving. So when Chanel came to me with her idea about a novel that explored two generations of women in a Cuban family — one woman’s life in Cuba before and during the revolution intertwined with her Cuban-American granddaughter’s experience visiting Cuba for the first time today — I knew it would appeal to all those readers like me who are curious about Cuba, both past and present.”
This novel is inspired by true events, following a Cuban-American writer who visits Havana for the first time and relating the story of her grandmother, who had to leave suddenly in 1959. Like Acevedo, Cleeton is an American born into a Cuban family. Her inspiration for Next Year in Havana stemmed indirectly from the easing of travel restrictions for US citizens to Cuba. She shared the story of how it came about:
“When diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States began to improve under the Obama administration and there was talk of opening up American travel opportunities to Cuba, my family planned on a reunion for the summer of 2017 for about sixty of us to travel to the island. At that time, we began discussing the places we wanted to visit, and when we talked about seeing our old family home, my father told me the story of a buried box of valuables that my family hid in the backyard when they left Cuba in 1967. That story sparked the inspiration for Next Year in Havana and was one I’d never heard before. The possibility of travel to Cuba lit a creative spark within me and also opened up a new dialogue within my family about our history and the effect the revolution had on those family members who lived through it.”
Despite her personal experience of increased buzz in Cuba as a novel setting, Cleeton agrees with Acevedo that there has always been an interest in Cuba among US readers. “[This is] largely in part to the dichotomy between [Cuba’s] close geographic proximity to the United States and the sense of distance that has been created by sanctions and strained diplomatic relations. Despite being only 90 miles from the United States, most Americans have never had an opportunity to travel to Cuba. The hope that relations would improve and travel would become possible certainly brought a heightened interest in Cuba, and I’ve been thrilled by how many readers have expressed a desire to learn more about Cuban history and culture.”
Robin Lloyd’s Harbor of Spies (Lyons Press, 2018) follows in the grand tradition of adventure on the high seas, and is his second novel. It’s an intricately delivered tale of a Yankee who finds himself in Havana, where he becomes a blockade runner during the US Civil War. Lloyd’s first novel, Rough Passage to London (Sheridan House, 2013), is of the same sub-genre but not set in Cuba. When asked if the Cuba connection influenced the decision to acquire Harbor of Spies, Eugene Brissie, Co-Editorial Director for Lyons Press, responded, “No, it was simply the next novel Robin wanted to write, and we were delighted to take it on. There is a nexus of intrigue and events concerning the US Civil War and attendant blockade-running, along with spies and murder in Havana at the time.” Brissie said he didn’t know whether there was a heightened interest in Cuba among US readers these days, but that there is interest in historical maritime fiction. “Robin’s novels are full of the kinds of historical detail that these fiction readers enjoy.”
As a former foreign correspondent for NBC News, Lloyd knows Cuba well; in fact, he shared with me that some of his personal experiences there were woven into Harbor of Spies, such as being followed by unknown “watchers.” Politics did not dictate his choice of setting. “My research of blockade-running pointed me in the direction of Cuba,” he explains. “I had presented the idea for the novel to Rowman & Littlefield (of which Lyons Press is an imprint) in 2014 and began further research for a full year before starting to write in 2015.
“That being said, I think everyone recognized that Cuba was a popular topic. To be honest, the research on historical Cuba is what was so compelling to me. And the unsolved murder of the actual British diplomat appealed to me as a reporter. In effect, I allowed my fictional characters to determine what happened in the novel. I had spent so much time in the ‘80s in Cuba that I found the research on colonial Cuba to be fascinating.”
The verdict seems to be that Cuba has always been, and will continue to be, a setting that draws writers, particularly historical fiction writers, thanks to its turbulent history. Whether US readers are more prone to picking up a novel set in Cuba today than they might have been four years ago remains a matter for debate. What is clear is that English-language readers everywhere can delve into these four noteworthy novels, all of which provide insight into distinct eras of Cuba’s past.
About the contributor: Claire Morris is the HNS Web Features Editor. She served as the Managing Editor of Solander from 2004 to 2009, and she helped start the HNS North American conferences.
