Next Year in Havana

By: Chanel Cleeton

Narrated by: Kyla Garcia, Frankie Maria Corzo

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

 A Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine on Audible Pick 

"A beautiful novel full of passion, secrets, courage and sacrifice." (Reese Witherspoon)

After the death of her beloved grandmother, a Cuban-American woman travels to Havana, where she discovers the roots of her identity - and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution 

Havana, 1958. The daughter of a sugar baron, 19-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba's high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country's growing political unrest - until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary.... 

Miami, 2017. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. Elisa's last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth. Arriving in Havana, Marisol comes face-to-face with the contrast of Cuba's tropical, timeless beauty and its perilous political climate. 

When more family history comes to light and Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she'll need the lessons of her grandmother's past to help her understand the true meaning of courage. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Amazing story line but the performance...

I absolutely loved this book and was sucked in. The performance was bit dry and slow but I found that if you changed the speed of the reading to atleast x1.5 or x1.75 it made it so much better!

Bad audio

It’s not that the narrator was unpleasant to listen to, it’s just that the audio was incredibly hard to hear in this book. I listen to audiobooks in my car every day, but I could barely hear this unless I turned the AC off, not ideal in 100° Dallas weather!!

Two Cuba's - Yesterday & Today

My wife is from Cuba and I live near Miami, so I know its history well. The then-and-now story is well developed but narrated with minimal emotion, hardly how a Cuban would tell it. Nonetheless, the history is accurate and the state of the island today is spot on. Though two narrators are used, it is hard to distinguish one from the other. My biggest complaint is that Cuban names of people and places are spoken with a Spanish pronunciation, although the narration is in perfect English. So Cuba becomes Koobah and location names are hard to understand. For me, it was a distraction, and it is not how I hear Cubans in Miami speak English. Other than that, the story will draw you in, teach you about a magic place and the people who love it, and paint a stark picture of how Cuba exchanged one despot for an even worse one.

Couldn’t Finish Listening

I found the performance very monotone and dull. I was not entertained by the reader to the point that I kept having to rewind because I found my mind kept wandering. I gave up on the book very early in.

Strike 2 for Hello Sunshine

I hate this book so much. I've got two hours left and can't bring myself to finish it. I don't even care enough to skip ahead and find out what happens in the end. The dialogue is insufferable. The repetition is maddening. The characters are completely unlikable. The contradictory statements would be laughable if they weren't such a waste of my time. And the narration is cringe worthy.

Emotional Listen for me....

From the moment I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it. This is the story of a Cuban American family and the legacy of the revolution on them. The story changes from the present to the time of the revolution (1958-59). The book is meticulously researched and written in a very compelling way. I could imagine myself having all the feelings and emotions of the modern day, Marisol, as she returns to Cuba. This book engulfed me for the entire time I was reading it. The narration was very good. I thought having 2 narrators was excellent. Definitely worth a credit!😊

Meh

I had a hard time getting through this book. it was interesting to learn about Cuba but the storyline did not keep me wanting more. I could have stopped mid book and been fine never finishing it.

Interesting but a bit tedious "Cuban" story

A 2nd generation Cuban American shoulders the burden of her grandmother's loss, at age 19, of her native country. Grandmother yearned all her life for her romanticized memory of her opulent life in pre-Castro Cuba and leaves the granddaughter with a somewhat schizophrenic view of her own nationality, wanting to return to a country that never WAS hers, and really never existed.
The story gives some good insights into the revolution-damaged nation's troubles but too much redundancy and trite phraseology in the telling.
The narrator is effective but uses a dreamy voice all throughout where I would have preferred a wider emotional range. Perhaps I should be ashamed to admit that some pronunciation also grated on my ears, (particularly the dropping of central consonants; e.g., "ser-un" instead of "ser-ten" for "certain".)

Very Disappinted

Although the history and description of Cuba then and now was interesting and especially to me since I visited Cuba in 2014 while my daughter was on a study abroad program there, I was extremely disappointed in the caliber of the story and in the caliber of the narration. The story is very tedious and sounds as if it were written by a complete novice. Additionally, everything about the story and the formula for the writing is completely predictable. The narration is lacking in expression and depth and the interjection of the Cuban pronunciation of the word Cuba as ‘Kuba” seems out of place given the complete American accent of the narrators in every other part of the book. I really liked Reese Witherspoon‘s recommendation of Something in the Water and expected this book to be good also. I was very surprised that this book was recommended as part of her book club recommendations. I would not recommend it to anyone as it is such a predictable, tedious, elementary and poorly narrated book.

Interesting story

The story is truly important and very interesting.
I was not crazy about the performance