Next Year in Havana

Chapter One

Elisa

Havana, 1959

 How long will we be gone?" my sister Maria asks.

"Awhile," I answer.

"Two months? Six months? A year? Two?"

"Quiet." I nudge her forward, my gaze darting around the departure area of Rancho-Boyeros Airport to see if anyone has overheard her question.

We stand in a row, the famous-or infamous, depending on who you ask-Perez sisters. Isabel leads the way, the eldest of the group. She doesn't speak, her gaze trained on her fiancŽ, Alberto. His face is pale as he watches us, as we march out of the city we once brought to its knees.

Beatriz is next. When she walks, the hem of her finest dress swinging against her calves, the pale blue fabric adorned with lace, it's as though the entire airport holds its collective breath. She's the beauty in the family and she knows it.

I trail behind her, the knees beneath my skirts quivering, each step a weighty effort.

And then there's Maria, the last of the sugar queens.

At thirteen, Maria's too young to understand the need to keep her voice low, is able to disregard the soldiers standing in green uniforms, guns slung over their shoulders and perched in their eager hands. She knows the danger those uniforms bring, but not as well as the rest of us do. We haven't been able to remove the grief that has swept our family in its unrelenting curl, but we've done our best to shield her from the barbarity we've endured. She hasn't heard the cries of the prisoners held in cages like animals in La Caba a, the prison now run by that Argentine monster. She hasn't watched Cuban blood spill on the ground.

But our father has.

He turns and silences her with a look, one he rarely employs yet is supremely effective. For most of our lives, he's left the care of his daughters to our mother and our nanny, Magda, too busy running his sugar company and playing politics. But these are extraordinary times, the stakes higher than any we've ever faced.

Chanel Cleeton is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of When We Left Cuba and the Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick Next Year in Havana. Originally from Florida, she grew up on stories of her family's exodus from Cuba following the events of the Cuban Revolution. Her passion for politics and history continued during her years spent studying in England where she earned a bachelor's degree in international relations from Richmond, the American International University in London, and a master's degree in global politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Chanel also received her Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law. She loves to travel and has lived in the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.

A beautiful novel that's full of forbidden passions, family secrets and a lot of courage and sacrifice.
Reese Witherspoon, (Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine book pick) 

A sweeping love story and tale of courage and familial and patriotic legacy that spans generations.
Entertainment Weekly

This Cuban-set historical novel is just what you need to get that ~extra-summery~ feeling.
Bustle

The Ultimate Beach Read
Real Simple
 
Next Year in Havana reminds us that while love is complicated and occasionally heartbreaking, it's always worth the risk.
NPR

A flat-out stunner of a book, at once a dual-timeline mystery, a passionate romance, and paean to the tragedy and beauty of war-torn Cuba. Simply wonderful!
Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network and The Huntress

Cleeton has penned an atmospheric, politically insightful, and highly hopeful homage to a lost world. Devour Next Year in Havana and you, too, will smell the perfumed groves, taste the ropa vieja, and feel the sun on your face.
Stephanie Dray, New York Times bestselling coauthor of America's First Daughter

Don t miss this smart, moving, and romantic story.
HelloGiggles.com

A vivid, transporting novel. Next Year in Havana is about journeys into exile, into history, and into questions of home and identity. It's an engrossing read.
David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl and The 19th Wife

An evocative, passionate story of family loyalty and forbidden love that moves seamlessly between the past and present of Cuba s turbulent history...Next Year in Havana kept me enthralled and savoring every word.
Shelley Noble, New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Beach

Chanel Cleeton s prose is as beautiful as Cuba itself, and the story she weaves of exile and loss, memory and myth, forbidden love and enduring