Zoé Valdés is one of Cuba's most original and imaginative writers. In Dear First Love, her third novel to appear in English, she spins a tale of one womans spiritual and sexual awakening under the soul-destroying Castro regime.
The numbing rhythm of daily life in poverty-stricken Havana has deadened Danae's mind and spirit. On the verge of a breakdown, she unceremoniously leaves Havana without explanation to her family. In search of her first true love, Danae retreats into the countryside of her adolescence, where the government of Fidel Castro had sent her and other teenagers in the late 1970s to work in the fields under a corrupt and sadistic overseer. It was here, surrounded by a natural world infused with spiritual wonders, that Danae met and fell in love with Tierra Fortuna Munda, a campesino girl her own age. And here the reader falls into the magic of Danae's late childhood, as a wooden suitcase, an ancient ceiba tree, a manatee, even light itself, narrate the gritty, irreverent, erotic, sometimes comic, often tragic life of the young adults in the work camps.
When the adult Danae finds Tierra, their lives are transformed, their love and its mysteries reborn. However, their return to Havana proves to be the ultimate test of love, not only for Danae and Tierra, but also for Danae's desperate family.
Dear First Love is a hymn to Cuba and to the soul and spirit of that beleaguered country. In sensuous language, Zoé Valdés renders daily life in urban Cuba and in its countryside, while at the same time exploring the universal themes of love and loss.

Dear First Love: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

VALDES,ZOE

United States

Harper

The numbing rhythm of daily life in poverty-stricken Havana has deadened Danae's mind and spirit. In search of her first true love, Danae returns to the countryside of her adolescence, where the government of Fidel Castro had sent her and other teenagers in the late 1970s to work in the fields under a corrupt and sadistic overseer. It is there, surrounded by a natural world infused with spiritual wonders, that Danae met and fell in love with Tierra Fortuna Munda, a campesino girl her own age. When the adult Danae finds Tierra again, their lives are transformed and their love reborn. But the ultimate test - their return to Havana - still lies before them.

Harper-perennial

Zoé Valdés, La reconocida escritora cubana, traza una apasionada declaración contra el régimen comunista cubano . . . Un retrato de Fidel Castro contado desde su punto de vista desenfrenado y tenaz"A veces pienso que todo esto ha sido una pesadilla, o una película mala, o una novela mediocre, o una pésima telenovela, un chiste pesado". Así comienza La ficción Fidel, el libro en el que la escritora exiliada expresa su rechazo al régimen de Fidel Castro, quien nos dice ha logrado hipnotizar tanto a amigos como a enemigos del régimen, manipulando y distorsionando la realidad. "Fidel Castro ha sido el más grande especialista de marketing que ha dado la historia contemporánea. Creó un producto―la revolución―y todo el mundo se lo compró".Zoé Valdés es reconocida por su ficción, la cual la ha consagrado internacionalmente. Sin embargo, en este nuevo libro la autora deja de lado todo componente ficticio para expresar fervientemente su repudio al régimen de Fidel Castro, combinando fluidamente diferentes géneros (ensayo, historia, memoria) dentro de una obra totalmente original.Con entrevistas secretas, documentos ocultos y su propia experiencia profesional, Valdés devela un gobierno turbio, lleno de contradicciones, guiado por uno de los hombres más manipuladores y carismáticos del mundo.

La Ficcion Fidel (Spanish Edition)

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

HarperCollins Espanol

Art and literature combine to transform this novel into a masterpiece of words.

La Cazadora de Astos (Spanish Edition)

Plaza y Janés.

Yocandra in the Paradise of Nada

Allison Busby

Born during the Cuban revolution in 1959, Yocandra learns that for a woman to survive in the world of communist machismo she must use all her assets--her body, her wits, and most importantly her ability to transform disillusionment into wonder.

Arcade Publishing

Born during the year of Castro's revolution, Yocandra grows up watching her beautiful Cuba be destroyed and transformed into a wasteland, and tries to make sure her life does not run on a parallel course to her country's. Reprint.

A young Cuban woman, Cuquita, tries to survive the increasingly repressive wasteland of Castro's Cuba as she waits for the political climate to change, so the love of her life--her daughter's father--can return to her. Reprint.

I Gave You All I Had

Literary

Valde S.

Genre Fiction

Arcade

An impressive picture of Havana before, during, and in the wake of the Castro Revolution, through the eyes of a former country girl.

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Books by VALDES,ZOE

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by VALDES,ZOE. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Dear First Love: A Novel

Dear First Love: A Novel

La Ficcion Fidel (Spanish Edition)

La Cazadora de Astos (Spanish Edition)

Yocandra in the Paradise of Nada

Yocandra in the Paradise of Nada

Yocandra in the Paradise of Nada

I Gave You All I Had

Yocandra in the Paradise of Nada

I Gave You All I Had