Revolutions Manrique-Hyland, Lory €10.00 - now €2.00 80% off save €8.00 ISBN: 1 903305 13 6 Format: Size: Publication Date: October 2004 Physical Copy (supplied by Lilliput Press) Add to Basket View Shopping Basket

Evening Herald/Today FM Paperback Writer Competition Winner

Marysol Castillo is a Cuban-American girl living in Miami. Haunted by the loss of their homeland, her parents and friends 'imagine their little two-bedroom homes to be Santa Clara cattle ranches, many-acre estates, Marianao mansions'. Marysol sees herself as 'an American with no pedigree, a nonentity trying to make herself into a somebody'. But when she begins to ask her grandmother Josefina about the past, she embarks on an emotional journey that will shatter her sense of who she really is.

Josefina's memories reveal the glamour of 1950s Havana and her first meeting with her husband, the dapper Rogelio, wooing women with his 'puppy-dog eyes'. Here also is the seductive and superstitious housemaid Consuelo, a devout believer in the magic powers of the santeros. But what is the true nature of the family's relationship with the charismatic Ruben Castro, brother of Fidel, and 'architect of the revolution'?

Set against the ferment of Castros' 1959 revolution and riots in 1980s Miami, Lory Manrique-Hyland's stunning debut is a thrilling evocation of time, place and people. Through its interlocking narratives, it probes deep into the ways in which migration and diaspora can tear apart the very fabric of life.