Telex from Cuba

A Novel

De: Rachel Kushner

Narrado por: Lloyd James

Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.

The debut novel by New York Times best-selling author Rachel Kushner, called “shimmering” (The New Yorker), “multilayered and absorbing” (The New York Times Book Review), and “gorgeously written” (Kirkus Reviews).

Young Everly Lederer and K.C. Stites come of age in Oriente Province, where the Americans tend their own fiefdom - 300,000 acres of United Fruit Company sugarcane that surround their gated enclave. If the rural tropics are a child's dreamworld, Everly and K.C. nevertheless have keen eyes for the indulgences and betrayals of the grown-ups around them - the mordant drinking and illicit loves, the race hierarchies and violence.

In Havana, 1,000 kilometers and a world away from the American colony, a cabaret dancer meets a French agitator named Christian de La Mazière, whose seductive demeanor can't mask his shameful past. Together, they become enmeshed in the brewing political underground. When Fidel and Raúl Castro lead a revolt from the mountains above the cane plantation, torching the sugar and kidnapping a boat full of "yanqui" revelers, K.C. and Everly begin to discover the brutality that keeps the colony humming. Though their parents remain blissfully untouched by the forces of history, the children hear the whispers of what is to come.

Kushner's first novel is a tour de force, haunting and compelling, with the urgency of a telex from a forgotten time and place.

©2008 Rachel Kushner (P)2019 Simon & Schuster

Amazing character development

Rachel Kushner is rightly celebrated. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I’ve read hundreds. If you want a sense of Cuba before Castro’s revolution and the tensions involved, the book is also great for that historical perspective.

So-so

I began this novel with high expectations as I am visiting Cuba for the first time next week . I found the story wanders all over the place, not really developing any character fully. This left me feeling unconnected to the characters and the story. It’s too bad because the story had a lot of potential. I recommend reading a non-fiction history of Cuba .

Great story, concept, characters

I was sucked in from the first pages. Loved the technique of telling the story from different characters’ perspectives. A lovely sense of place and time. Found the characters’ ruminations in the last third of the book to be repetitive and less well honed writing than the writing in the rest of the book. Overall, highly recommend this book for a great read.