Havana Passage
Cuba after Castro
HAVANA PASSAGE; 2005; Ivy House Publishing $24.95
Kate is 24, blond, smart, an ex-NCAA tennis star from Stanford University, and she’s just finished her second year at the Georgetown Law Center in Washington, D. C.
Ana is 16 and lives in Havana, she’s a victim of everything that’s wrong with despotism; she stands for the resilience of youth and brains being able to survive the worst of times, and her tough innocence shines through as a beacon for the future of our planet.
Lara, is 26, dark eyed and beautiful, very determined, a graduate lawyer on the staff of the Interior Ministry in Havana, Cuba, and keenly aware that her country faces an uncertain future.
Rebecca is 58, willowy tall, with striking grey eyes and a style that unmistakably identifies her as a leader, and she’s the newly elected President of the United States.
Santiago at 45 looks back from a fishing boat in Key West at his past life as Fidel Castro’s top bodyguard.
Gordon is 44, close advisor to the President, a successful D.C. lawyer, and boyhood lover of Kate’s mother, Elizabeth.
Carlos the Orphan is 53, clever, rapacious, sworn to avenge his family’s murder at the hands of Fidel Castro, and determined to cause chaos in Havana when it suits his purposes.
Santos is 46, possible heir apparent to Fidel Castro, ruthless, brilliant and plotting.
Setting: Washington, Miami, and Havana a few years hence. Gordon and Kate accept a mission for the President and go to Havana under the guise of collecting evidence on a case. The secret mission is proceeding as the President and Gordon planned until Santiago shows up back in Havana on orders from Carlos the Orphan in Miami. Santiago’s presence lights the fuse to an explosive showdown over the direction Cuba’s government will take, as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela moves to shore up the Cuban regime.
Havana Passage feeds on the romance that develops between Kate and Gordon and on the spirit of ordinary Cubans living on both sides of the Florida Straits. Today’s political agendas in Havana and Miami are exposed through the character and action of Santiago, whose alliance with Kate steers the plot around some sharp corners and into revelations of questionable American foreign policy. The story gives us a peek at tomorrow’s history in a Cuba without Fidel Castro.
Havana Passage, Ivy House Publishing Group, 2005, ISBN 1-57197-452-0
