Acevedo is a talented storyteller. She expertly weaves the threads of many tales into a singular patchwork. The most Marvel-ous part of the book is the knowledge and texture with which Acevedo paints Cuban history. This reader certainly felt as if she was there, experiencing the heartaches of the narrator firsthand. ( )

The story opens in in Cuba in 1963, as Hurricane Flora is about to hit the island. A group of women have been evacuated to a more substantial building. Protagonist Maria Serena, now in her eighties, tells her life story to the women to keep them occupied while the storm rages.

“I have more in common with these women, I realize, than I do with anyone else in the world. We are bound together by fear and memory, fastened by the common mysteries of motherhood, made familiar to one another in the shadow of a monstrous storm.”

I thought this book was going to be about a woman reading to cigar workers, but it turns out to be quite different. Yes, Maria Serena used to work as a storyteller in a cigar factory, but this part of her life is never told in any detail. The storyline alternates between long sections about Maria Serena’s past and short sections about the women sheltering from the storm. The majority of the book is set in the early 1900s, when Cuba was fighting Spain for independence. I particularly enjoyed the parts set during the Cuban Liberation movement, where we find passages such as:

“La Cuchilla was barricaded all around with a tall fence of spiked posts. Guards stood at the single entrance to the town. I’d heard of these camps, where Cubans were forcibly concentrated in order to keep villagers from assisting the Liberation Army. People in the camps were called the reconcentrados. It was Agustín who had first described these places, cut off from food and fresh water, where Cubans were dying by the thousands of disease and starvation.”

This book comes across as realistic historical fiction. There is a romance, but it is not the primary driver of the plot. It is the type that can give the reader a sense of what it was like to live in Cuba during the era. It is a good pick for Hispanic Heritage month. ( )

Engaging story of an old woman in a shelter in Cuba during Hurricane Flora. Maria Sirena was at one time a "lectore" in a cigar factory in Havana. A lectore is one that reads stories to the workers to keep them entertained while they roll the cigars. Sirena would often make up stories based on her own life giving herself a name she was once given during the Spanish American War (Cuban War for Independence from Spain). The novel is told in somewhat alternating chapters of Sirena's past and life in the shelter with other older women from her area.

Sirena tells of her mother, Lula (Illumanata) who gave birth to her on a ship coming from New York City to Cuba. Her father, Augustin, was one of the early Cuban revolutionaries and he was in NY attempting to get support for their cause. After she was born, Augustin was often away fighting and Lula and Sirena found themselves first living in a hotel for many years with a man who became like a father to her. Lula was a beautiful woman who used her beauty to protect herself and her daughter. When Augustin returns and Julio is killed, the family are fleeing and wind up in a camp for the rebels. Once again, Augustin is often away. Lula has an affair with a famous Cuban poet who inspired much of the revolution.

Sirena falls in love with Mario, an African black, also a revolutionary. She becomes pregnant as a teenager. The Spanish general called "The Butcher" sweeps through Cuba and places many of the women and children in camps where life is extremely hard. Mario leaves to fight; Augustin is killed; and Lula grows old no longer able to seduce by her beauty. Befriended by an American woman journalist, Sirena makes an incredible escape posing as a Spanish nurse. She gives birth to her son, Myrito, in a Spanish hospital for soldiers where she is working to save the lives of enemies of the Cubans. Through a total lack of communication, she unwittingly gives up her son thinking that she will be accompanying him to New York.

Sirena's telling of her life in the shelter during the Hurricane is beautifully and believably told. The other women in the shelter also have stories including a once friend to Sirena's who lost her son and blames Sirena since Sirena's daughter (who was born later), was once his girlfriend.

I liked everything about this book. The alternating of the backstory and the story in the shelter was skillfully done. ( )

She was a daughter, a mother, a revolutionary, a storyteller. Maria is evacuated from her home during Hurricane Flora’s ravage upon Cuba in 1963. While sheltered in the governor’s mansion, the women share stories to alleviate their fear. Maria tells her life story in heart-breaking detail, not only in an act of contrition but also in hopes that she will not be forgotten. Deeply moving, folk story like prose. Simply fantastic. ( )

I’m fond of historical novels. This one is about love and war and how it affects the lives of ordinary people. It tells the tale of Cuban women enduring hardships during the Spanish-American War – their war for independence from Spain. It opens at the beginning of Castro’s regime, but flashes back to the earliest 1900’s. You get a sense you are listening to (reading) a grandmother’s unusual, powerful oral history as she also confides a painful measure of maternal guilt. Acevedo captures the culture and youthful passions of the times in a myriad of details, including the experiences of an African-Cuban character contrasted with the professed equality of the rebels.

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