The Sugar Island

Ivonne Lamazaress distinguished debut novel is at once a deeply personal and worldly tale . . . a wonderful amalgamation of culture politics and love (Philadelphia Weekly). With economical prose and a clear-eyed vision Lamazares evokes lives full of hope but fraught with obstacles in this story of a mother and daughter in 1960s Cuba. The story is told in the brave tough voice of Tanya a girl at odds with her mother and with the rapidly changing world around her. In the wake of Castros revolution Tanya''s mother -- passionate and unreliable -- is determined to leave Cuba at all costs and to take her reluctant daughter with her. THE SUGAR ISLAND presents their embattled relationship against the backdrop of a country in conflict with itself where the old world chafes against the new and where a parents desperate grab for freedom has dire consequences for her child.