Oscar Hijuelos

A first-generation Cuban son comes of age in the debutand most autobiographicalnovel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. Winner of the Ingram Merrill Foundation Award and the Rome Prize Hector Santinio is the younger son of Alejo and Mercedes, who moved to New York from Cuba in the mid-1940s. The family of four shares their modest apartment with extended relatives in Harlem, where homesickness and nostalgia are dispelled by nights of dancing and raucous parties. But lifes realities are nevertheless harsh in the Santinio familys adoptive land. When Mercedes takes Hector and his brother to visit Cuba, to better know her culture, Hector contracts a serious illness that leads to a terrifying period of hospitalization back in the United States where, isolated from his family, he loses much of his ability to speak Spanish. And it is this fracturing that sparks a lifelong quest to not only reconcile his Cuban identity with his American one, but to also understand his parents ambitions and anxieties within the country at large. In this profoundly moving account of immigrant life, Oscar Hijuelos displays, once again, his mastery over both character and languageand sets readers on an unforgettable journey of hope, longing, and self-discovery.Includes a Reading Group Guide.

In 1949, two young Cuban musicians, brothers Cesar and Nestor, leave Havana for New York. By day they work hard, by night they are the Mambo Kings: packing out clubs, dance halls and theatres with their sensuous, pulsing Latin music. This is the captivating story of charming, vivacious womanizer Cesar and quiet, romantic Nestor - still nursing an unrequited love for 'beautiful Maria of my soul' - and their changing fortunes as they try to make it big in America.

TWAIN AND STANLEY ENTER PARADISE follows famed 19th century journalist-explorer Henry Stanley, his wife, the painter Dorothy Tennant, and Stanley's long friendship with Mark Twain, as they venture to Cuba in search of Stanley's father. Told through a fictitious manuscript and imagined correspondence between Stanley, Tennant, and Twain, Hijuelos captures not only the general style of educated 19th century, but manages to pull off the seemingly impossible task of channelling Mark Twain himself. The manuscript--in the works for decades--was found, whole and finished, by Hijuelos's widow after his dea

With soaring, matchless prose, a Pulitzer Prize winner pens a New York Times bestselling saga of the Montez OBriens, a rambunctious family of Irish Cuban immigrants comprised of fourteen daughtersand one doggedly masculine son (Publishers Weekly). Irish American Nelson OBrien fell passionately in love with the poetess Mariela Montez while photographing the ravages of battle in Marielas native Cuba during the Spanish-American War. After marrying, they moved to the United States to start a new life, settling in a small Pennsylvania town where Nelson took over the Jewel Box Movie Theater. Together, they had a remarkable fifteen children: fourteen daughters and one lone son. In Oscar Hijueloss The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez OBrien, the lives, loves, and tragedies of this sprawling Irish Cuban family unfold. Over the course of a century, each member moves in and out of each others lives, traversing Cuba, New York, California, Alaska, and Ireland, while Margaritathe Montez OBriens eldest daughterruminates on the nature of femininity, sex, love, and earthly happiness. And as Margarita learns and grows in an overwhelmingly female environment, she cant help but contrast her experiences with those of Emilio, her intensely masculine brother, whose B-movie career in the 1950s has left him adrift and frustrated, with little hope of success. Lush and gorgeously written, The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez OBrien is a masterwork by one of Americas greatest writers. Reckoning with cultural assimilation and complex family dynamics, the novel elicits tears and laughter while tenderly revealing the bounteous heart and exhilarating adventures of a warm, passionate family.Includes a Reading Group Guide.

The Pulitzer Prize winning modern classic of two Cuban musician brothers during the mambo-filled nights of 50s New York from literary trailblazer, Oscar Hijuelos. Its 1949 and two young Cuban musicians make their way from Havana to the grand stage of New York City. It is the era of mambo, and the Castillo brothers, workers by day, become stars of the dance halls by night, where their orchestra plays the lush, sensuous, pulsing music that earns them the title of the Mambo Kings. This is their moment of youth, exuberance, love, and freedoma golden time that decades later is remembered with nostalgia and deep affection. Hijueloss portrait of the Castillo brothers, their families, their fellow musicians and lovers, their triumphs and tragedies, recreates the sights and sounds of an era in music and an unsung moment in American life. Exuberantly celebrated from the moment it was published in 1989, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1990 (making Hijuelos the first Hispanic recipient of the award). It remains a perennial bestseller, and the storys themes of cultural fusion and identity are as relevant today as they were over 30 years ago, proving Hijueloss novel to be a genuine and timeless classic.Includes a Reading Group Guide.

Rico Fuentes tiene 15 años, vive en Harlem y es norteamericano de primera generación. Estamos a finales de los 60 o principios de los 70 del pasado siglo. Su padre y su madre son cubanos, de procedencia muy modesta y oscuros de tez; su hermana pequeña es tambien mulata. El padre, que trabaja en dos lugares distintos para sacar adelante la familia, tiene problemas con el alcohol. Rico es de piel blanca y cabellos rubios (incluso tiene pecas: debe estos rasgos a un antepasado irlandes por parte materna) y se ve sometido por ello, tanto en el barrio como en la escuela, al acoso permanente de quienes lo consideran un dark dude, expresion despectiva que, como el autor explica al comienzo del libro, designa a un latino o un afroamericano de piel tan clara que parece casi un whitey o un pinky, terminos con los que las personas de estas comunidades designan a los blancos. Pero no se trata solo de una cuestion terminologica, porque si eres un dark dude estaras sometido al continuo acoso de quienes pretenden arrebatarte el dinero que suponen que tienes, tu dignidad o tu coraje...

Nuestra casa en el fin del mundo es el cálido retrato de una familia cubana emigrada a Nueva York en 1943. Toda la exuberancia y el ritmo de la isla caribeña, la fuerza de su lengua convertida en refugio de la pasiUn y la nostalgia, y su choque con la realidad de un pais ajeno, de cultura radicalmente diferente, son reflejados por el menor de los Santinio. En esta crUnica familiar, scar Hijuelos ha tejido retazos de su propia biografia: la infancia en una barriada neoyorquina, la larga estancia en un hospital infantil, o la confusiUn y el desarraigo vividos en un hogar que la fantasia exacerbada habia poblado de aparecidos y sombras del pasado.

El autor de Los reyes del mambo nos ofrece la historia de Lydia España, una emigrante cubana que llega a Nueva York y malvive como la chica de la limpieza para familias acaudaladas. Sin embargo ella tiene una meta muy clara: pertenecer a la clase de personas para las que de momento ha de hacer la limpieza, participar de pleno derecho en el sueño americano. ¿Lo conseguira? ¿A que precio?...Una novela tan divertida como de profunda humanidad, narrada con encanto y ternura.

Dos hermanos cubanos llegados a Nueva York forman el grupo musical The Mambo Kings, y pronto pasan de simples trabajadores a reyes de la noche. Una historia sobre las distintas caras del sueño americ

El sueño del autor vuelve a ser tema del autor de la premiada Los reyes del manto tocan canciones de amor. Una joven cubana en busca de su sueño en Nueva York. Allí la espera la dura realidad. Tris

Filled with ghosts and the delicate presence of flowers, the sensuality of Cuban rhythms and the reality of Manhattan, this novel is about people stranded between two cultures whose search for a bett

Hailed the deepest and the best of a Pulitzer-Prize winning authors novels, a business man struggles to restore his faith after his son is killed (New York Times Book Review). In 1960s New York, Edward Ives is a picture of the American dream. Adopted as a child by a widowed print shop manager who helped him cultivate a love of drawing, he now has a successful career as an illustrator in advertising, a beautiful home with his wife and muse, Annie, and two loving children. But this idyllic life is brutally wrenched away when Ivess 17-year-old son, Robert is murdered in a crime of opportunity that proves to be as random as it is senseless. Consumed by grief, Ives withdraws from the world. Grappling with a loss of faitha force that has guided him steadfastly since childhoodhe starts to question every aspect of human existence, contemplating what it really means to live an emotionally and spiritually fulfilling life. This mourning consumes himuntil faces his sons killer.Mr. Ives Christmas is a tender, passionate story of a man working to rediscover what it means to love and forgive after unspeakable tragedy. It is another tremendous achievement from one of Americas most talented writers. Includes a Reading Group Guide.