Love Letters from Cuba

It’s the year 2021, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, when twenty-four-year-old Lena Pérez discovers her grandfather’s love letters. She has just ended a three-year relationship with Paulo Oliviera—a Brazilian ex-soccer player—after realizing he will never be accepted by her Cuban-American mother. She feels lost. Through the letters kept by the wounded Vietnam veteran Rolando Pérez, Lena learns about events that occurred long before her birth and took her grandfather from Cuba to the United States and Vietnam. Through these letters, she is able to peel the layers of who she is, learning about where her family comes from, uncovering secrets, and finding who she will become.

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"In her newest novel, award-winning author Betty Viamontes uses the first-person narrative and brilliantly exploits the epistolary approach. As in her prior works, she continues to describe life in Cuba. The novel is set in present day and is full of surprises that will keep you guessing what will happen next.” –Susana Jiménez-Mueller, storyteller and podcaster, author of Now I Swim and The Green Plantain - The Cuban Stories Project podcast.

About the Author
Betty Viamontes was born in Havana, Cuba. When Betty was fifteen, she and her family crossed the Florida Straits in an overcrowded shrimp boat on a stormy night when many families perished. This trip would reunite the family with Betty’s father in the United States after twelve years of separation. Betty completed graduate studies at the University of South Florida. Upon her mother’s death, Betty began to dedicate her life to capturing stories of people without a voice.

Her stories have traveled the world from the award-winning Waiting on Zapote Street to the No. 1 newest releases, The Pedro Pan Girls, and The Girl from White Creek.