Ana Menendez

From the critically acclaimed author of In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd comes a new novel about the search for freedom and the power of community that spans decades of residents in one Florida apartment The Helena is an art deco apartment building that has witnessed the changing face of South Miami Beach for seventy years, observing the lives housed within. Among those who have called apartment 2B home are a Cuban concert pianist who performs in a nursing home; the widow of an intelligence officer raising her young daughter alone; a man waiting on a green card marriage to run its course so that he can divorce his wife and marry his lover, all of whom live together; a Tajik building manager with a secret identity; and a troubled young refugee named Lenin. Each tenant imbues 2B with energy that will either heal or overwhelm its latest resident, Lana, a mysterious woman struggling with her own past. Examining exile, homesickness, and displacement, The Apartment asks what--in our violent and lonely century--do we owe one another? If alone we are powerless before sorrow and isolation, it is through community and the sharing of our stories that we may survive and persevere.

In this follow-up to her beloved, prize-winning debut, In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Ana Menendez delivers a liberating, magical, and modern take on the idea of migration and flight. Adios, Happy Homeland! is a wildly innovative collection of interlinked tales that challenge our preconceptions of storytelling. This critical look at the life of the Cuban writer pulls apart and reassembles the myths that have come to define her culture, blending illusion with reality and exploring themes of art, family, language, superstition, and the overwhelming need to escape--from the island, from memory, from stereotype, and, ultimately, from the self. We're taken into a sick man's fever dream as he waits for a train beneath a strange night sky, into a community of parachute makers facing the end in a windy town that no longer exists, and onto a Cuban beach where the body of a boy last seen on a boat bound for America turns out to be a giant jellyfish. With Adios Happy Homeland!, Menendez puts a contemporary twist on the troubled history of Cuba and offers a wry and poignant perspective on the conundrum of cultural displacement. Smart, accessible, and literary, it is a captivating portrayal of how stories are translated, (mis)interpreted, and shaped across time and traditions.

" A] potent literary novel . . . A deft portrait of an estranged couple whose pain is veiled by the fog of war." --PeopleFrom the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq to the strange, shimmering streets of Istanbul, The Last War is a "seductive meditation" (O, The Oprah Magazine) on cruelty and violence, love and identity from Pushcart Prize-winning author Ana Men ndez.Photojournalist Flash chases conflicts around the globe with her war correspondent husband, Brando. Now Brando is in Iraq awaiting her arrival, but instead of racing to join him, Flash idles in Istanbul, vaguely aware that her marriage is faltering. Her malaise is compounded by the arrival of a mysterious letter revealing Brando's infidelity--and by the sudden appearance of Alexandra, a fierce and captivating colleague who shared dangerous days with the couple in Afghanistan. As Flash spirals deeper into regret, anger, and indecision, she wonders if she and Brando were ever really happy--as she's forced to confront long-buried secrets and hard truths about her world, her marriage, her husband, and herself.The Last War is a breathtaking novel of love, war, and betrayal from the critically acclaimed author of Loving Che and the New York Times Notable Book, In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd.

An elderly woman looks back on the world of revolutionary Cuba as she recalls her intimate, secret love affair with revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, in the story of a young Cuban woman who finds her search for details about her birth mother in a mysterious parcel containing writings and photographs. By the author of In Cuba I Was a German Shepard. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.

This Pushcart Prize-winning story--a masterpiece of humor and heartbreak--unfolds a series of family snapshots that illuminate the landscape of an exiled community rich in heritage, memory, and longing for the past. At once "tender and sharp-fanged" ("L.A. Weekly").