Oscar Hijuelos Libros

Here are the sights, sounds, and rhythms of Cuba, revealed in the evocative works of some of the finest Cuban and Cuban American poets of the twentieth century. In Burnt Sugar, bestselling translator Lori Marie Carlson and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos have created an intimate collection of some of their favorite modern poems, all of which are informed by cubanía -- the essence of what it means to be Cuban. "Cuban" in this sense refers neither to ideology nor to geography but rather to the distinguishing characteristics of Cuban poetry as it has developed over time: clever verbal play, overt rhythmic notes, and an intensity of longing, whether religious, political, or amorous. Many of these poems have never been translated into English before, and taken together they, as the editors say, "produce a vibrant, satisfying sound and vivid imagery. They allow for some understanding of modern-day preoccupations, contradictions, feelings, and attitudes considered to be Cuban." Stirring, immediate, and universal in its sensibility, Burnt Sugar is a luminous collection lovingly compiled by two of the world's foremost authorities on the subject.

Cesar y Nestor Castillo, musicos cubanos, llegan a Nueva York en busca de fama y fortuna

It is 1947 and Israel Levis, a Cuban composer whose life had once been a dream of music, love and sadness, is returning to Habana, Cuba, from Spain, where he has just recovered from the physical and spiritual malaise resulting from his experiences in Paris, then Buchenwald, during the Nazi occupation of France. (A devout Catholic, Levis had been mistakenly identified as a Jew because of his name.) When Levis arrives back in Habana, after an absence of many years, his mind is reeling with beautiful memories of his life in Cuba and in Paris before the war, a life of pleasure and excitement that he owes, in part, to an unrequited, nearly "chivalrous" romance with a certain Rita Valladares, a singer for whom Levis had written his most famous song, "Rosas Puras," or "Pretty Roses." This 1928 composition becomes the most famous rumba in the world and changes both American and European tastes in music and dance - forever; and it is the song, symbolic of the composer's love for Rita Valladares, that sets Levis's life in Europe in motion. This is at once a love story - for art, family and country - as well as a portrait of Habana at the turn of the last century, when "the world was good." A Simple Habana Melody is a virtuoso performance from one of our most important writers.

In New York, a father's worst nightmare arrives just before Christmas when Edward Ives learns his son Robert, 17, was murdered in the street for $10 by another teenager. The novel describes his coming to terms with his loss

In his new novel, Oscar Hijuelos, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, brings to life the rambunctious Montez O'Brien family. The father, Nelson O'Brien, is an enterprising Irish immigrant who travels to Cuba as a photographer during the Spanish-American War in 1898, and there he meets his future wife, the sensitive, aristocratic, poetic Mariela Montez. As they are enroute to America in 1902, their first daughter, Margarita, whose reminiscences inform much of this novel's narrative, is born at sea. The Montez O'Briens settle in a small Pennsylvania town, where Nelson practices his photography trade and runs the Jewel Box Movie Theater, and Mariela gives birth to thirteen more daughters and then, finally, a son. As Margarita looks back on her long and full life, the novel recounts the lives, loves, and tragedies of the Montez O'Briens and their always complex relations with one another. It also follows Emilio through his days in Greenwich Village, the army, and Hollywood, where, as Monty O'Brien, he stars in grade-B detective and Tarzan movies and pals around with screen idols like Errol Flynn. Never altogether at peace in the overwhelming feminine world of his family, he searches restlessly for an elusive true love. And after an unhappy early marriage, Margarita herself finds the deepest passion of her life in extreme old age. The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien is a raucous and heartfelt epic that spans both the continent and our century, a celebration of the moments of earthly happiness that give meaning to diverse yet deeply interrelated existences and of the constantly surprising, regenerating life force that keeps insisting on change and renewal

“Savor the mysterious power of a master’s pentimento.” —Los Angeles Times “It takes a lot of nerve and skill to pull off something as rich as Beautiful MarÍa of My Soul, but pull it off Hijuelos does.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer “I fell instantly in love with the glorious soul of Beautiful MarÍa of My Soul. Hijuelos has created and brought to life two beloved characters, a heart-stealing heroine and Havana during an epoch of changing fate.” —Amy Tan, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club In Beautiful MarÍa of My Soul, Oscar Hijuelos returns to the passionate tale he began twenty years ago in The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. MarÍa is the great Cuban beauty who stole musician Nestor Castillo’s heart and broke it, inspiring him to write the Mambo Kings’ biggest hit, “Beautiful MarÍa of My Soul.'” Now in her sixties and living as an exile in Miami, MarÍa remains a beauty, still capable of turning heads. But while she left Cuba decades ago, she has never forgotten Nestor. As she thinks back to her days—and nights—in Havana, an entirely new perspective on the Mambo Kings story unfolds. Beautiful MarÍa of My Soul is a stunning act of reinvention, and another contemporary classic from an extraordinarily talented writer.

Oscar Hijuelos, the first Latino Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, intricately explores the Cuban American immigrant experience. His debut novel, Our House in the Last World, follows Hector Santinio's family as they navigate the contrasting worlds of Cuba and New York City, grappling with identity and nostalgia. In The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Hijuelos celebrates Latin music through bandleader Cesar Castillo's reflections on fame and family. Mr. Ives' Christmas delves into the American dream's fragility, as a father's life is irrevocably changed by tragedy.

TWAIN AND STANLEY ENTER PARADISE follows famed 19th century journalist-explorer Henry Stanley, his wife, the painter Dorothy Tennant, and Stanley's long friendship with Mark Twain, as they venture to Cuba in search of Stanley's father. Told through a fictitious manuscript and imagined correspondence between Stanley, Tennant, and Twain, Hijuelos captures not only the general style of educated 19th century, but manages to pull off the seemingly impossible task of channelling Mark Twain himself. The manuscript--in the works for decades--was found, whole and finished, by Hijuelos's widow after his death.