I Was Never the First Lady
A Novel
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
“I Was Never The First Lady stitches together threads of island and identity until they became one and the same…Guerra’s own unpredictable book is haunting, complicated, [and] linguistically beautiful.” -- The New York Times
A lush, sensuous, and original tale of family, love, and history, set against the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution and its aftermath.
Nadia Guerra’s mother, Albis Torres, left when Nadia was just ten years old. Growing up, the proponents of revolution promised a better future. Now that she’s an adult, Nadia finds that life in Havana hasn’t quite matched its promise; instead it has stifled her rebellious and artistic desires. Each night she DJs a radio show government censors block from broadcasting. Frustrated, Nadia finds hope and a way out when she wins a scholarship to study in Russia.
Leaving Cuba offers her the chance to find her long lost mother and her real father. But as she embarks on a journey east, Nadia soon begins to question everything she thought she knew and understood about her past.
As Nadia discovers more about her family, her fate becomes entwined with that of Celia Sanchez, an icon of the Cuban Revolution—a resistance fighter, ingenious spy, and the rumored lover of Fidel Castro. A tale of revolutionary ideals and promise, Celia’s story interweaves with Nadia’s search for meaning, and eventually reveals secrets Nadia could never have dreamed.
Translated from the Spanish by Achy Obejas
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cuban writer Guerra (Revolution Sunday) gives readers a revelatory tale of the Cuban Revolution's impact on a family. In 2005, artist Nadia Guerra, 35, reflects on communist Cuba ("My most heroic acts are simple: to survive on this island, to avoid suicide, to deal with the guilt"). Her parents are intimately connected to the 1950s revolution and its icons; her mother, poet Albis Torres, was close to the late Celia Sanchez, reputed to be Fidel Castro's lover, and her filmmaker father achieved success in the 1960s. Albis left when Nadia was 10; raised by her father, Nadia believed in the revolution's ideals of a better life. Now, Nadia chafes against censorship and starts to question the identity of her biological father. She earns a Guggenheim grant to make sculptures in France, and uses the money to search for her mother. Nadia finds Albis in Russia, and brings her back to Havana. Along the way, Guerra switches from Nadia's nonlinear account to Albis's voice via letters describing her youth and close friendship with Celia. The former can be difficult to follow, but Guerra holds the reader's attention by evoking Cuba's political tempest in Havana's humid, salty air. It adds up to an effectively moody, intimate story.
