Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
“That’s the thing about death—even when you think someone is gone, glimpses of them remain in those they loved and left behind.”
“Next Year in Havana” by Chanel Cleeton is a beautifully written novel that spans 60 years in Havana, Cuba, and Miami, Florida. It is told in a dual timeline format, alternating between the late 1950s and the present day. Both storylines are equally interesting, and Chanel Cleeton artfully incorporates both the beauty and history of Cuba into her tale about courage in the face of family and loss.
The story begins in Havana in 1959, a time when many families fled Cuba and Fidel Castro. The Perez family is very wealthy because of their success in sugar plantations, and recent political troubles have forced them to leave Cuba to keep their family safe. Elisa Perez is 19 years old when her family leaves Havana for Miami, leaving behind a man she has fallen in love with and who happens to be a revolutionary.
We see Cuba through Elisa’s innocent eyes. From the rush of excitement meeting her first love and revolutionary, and her naivety of a reality facing Cuba outside her gilded walls, to her world crumbling as the political regime fails and her heartsick worry over an unknown future comes to fruition, the Cuba she knew is ending. The love for her family pulled her in one direction, while the love of a man fighting for his country pulled her in yet another, but it forced Elisa to see life past her safety bubble and realize how much more she offered... if she only took that first step.
Pablo, Elisa’s revolutionary love, fought for his convictions and was determined to free his countrymen from a dictator. Granted, we know Cuba traded one for another, but at the time, Castro seemed like a good choice to Pablo to help break free of Batista’s tyranny. Meeting Pablo changed Elisa’s life in many ways, some painful and some unexpectedly joyful, but I believe it changed Pablo too. He saw his fight in a different light because she gave him hope a better future existed, one he had never considered before.
With Pablo, Elisa also sees her home in a new light. For so long, she believed in what her parents believed in, but suddenly; she wonders if there’s more than meets the eye. What I respected and admired the most about Elisa, however, was how far she would go to protect her family and the sacrifices she took in doing so. As secrets of her life began pouring out at the end, my heart broke for her. Yes, her family held onto their wealth and status and she had an “easy” life, but she gave up so much in the process, her best friend, her first love, her home, etc. She was truly an amazing woman.
Fast forward to 2017 in Miami, Florida. Marisol Ferrera is the granddaughter of Elisa Perez, who has recently passed away. Elisa’s greatest wish was to return to Cuba, so Marisol travels to Havana to spread her grandmother’s ashes. Marisol has no idea when she arrives in Cuba that she will end up learning so much about her family’s history and get to witness firsthand the life Cubans live.
Marisol was also an interesting and loveable main character. It was interesting to see how her narrative shifted upon her arrival in Cuba. She’s grown up on the stories passed down from her great aunts and grandparents. However, as Marisol finds out, being in a country differs greatly from hearing about a country. In Cuba, she experiences a homecoming, a rebirth of sorts. She learns things about herself she never knew and sees her grandmother in a new light. She also experiences a love like never before – love that makes her risk everything. In most ways, she was like her grandmother, fearless, loving, a believer in the glass-half-full, not half-empty.
This book was an amazing read! Chanel Cleeton did her research and captures the romance and myth of old and new Cuba with so much passion. She conveys so much emotion in these characters... it was hard not to get sucked into their daily lives, even when you know what’s coming for Cuba. Passionate, riveting, heartbreaking, romantic, raw… Chanel Cleeton took a dark bit of history and brought it to light with characters full of hope and zest for a better chance at life. Without taking sides, Cleeton engenders sympathy for both groups and the hard choices that those individuals had to make when choosing which path to take. I look at Cuba with new eyes and a hefty dose of respect, for the struggles the people have overcome to survive.
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