NEXT YEAR IN HAVANA by Chanel Cleeton

This book swept me away to Cuba and the parallel love stories of grandmother and granddaughter.  In 1959 nineteen-year-old Elisa and her family enjoy a carefree life of affluence in Havana, until Castro’s rebellion against Batista’s corrupt regime gets underway.  She meets a young revolutionary at a party, and they fall madly in love.  Decades later, her granddaughter Marisol, raised in the Miami area, goes to Cuba to scatter Elisa’s ashes.  Fidel has passed power on to Raul Castro, and most of the country remains in poverty, struggling to survive on scarce rations or capitalizing on the tourism industry.  Marisol meets a young man also, who may already be under Castro’s scrutiny for his blog’s criticism of the government.  Both women find themselves conflicted about their place in Cuba.  Elisa and her family become exiles, but they quickly rebuild their sugar business and prosper.  However, she and Marisol both have to grapple with the fact that most Cubans have not been so fortunate.  Both love stories are breathtaking, but the backdrop of Cuban history tends to take center stage.  Unfortunately, although I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it probably would not appeal to men, because of the romantic angle.  There is sort of a Gone With the Wind feel to it, with the spoiled heroines and their courageous men who refuse to abandon their principles.  There are a couple of surprises, one of which I anticipated and one that I did not.  This book was not on my radar until my book club chose it, and I’m glad they did.