A Corner of the World

"[Mylene Fernandez-Pintado's] talent for characterization and deep knowledge of Cuban history shines through."--Publishers Weekly "Fernandez-Pintado's novel, capably translated ... challenges the tropes and stereotypes inherent in much of the literature about Cuba to add a new perspective ... A sharp, funny blend of politics and romance that strikes out in a new direction."--Kirkus Reviews "The ... blend of cosmopolitan energy and page-turning prose makes for unforgettable reading [and] helps to explain why [Mylene Fernandez-Pintado's] work continues to be translated across the globe."--Booklist "Fernandez-Pintado artfully reveals the impact of Cuba's socialist system on individuals' sense of belonging ... poignantly rendered throughout her novel ... As the story unfolds, the professor coaxed out of her shell through a romantic liaison with a younger bohemian writer, we also get brief and profound digressions about such universal topics as violence, depression, and anxiety, as well poignant reflections upon women and guilt, a sense that being sexual as well as intellectual is entirely provocative, and upon the complicated relationship of parenting, legacy, and health on the individual and national levels. In these ways, A Corner of the World transcends its Cuban backdrop, and emerges as a beautiful and painful love story inhabiting other novels."----Jacqueline Loss, Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas "A Corner of the World explores the irreconcilable rift created between a couple-a young writer and a professor of literature-when one wants to leave, and the other does not. While everyone in Cuba knows someone who has left, stories told from the perspective of a narrator who, like Fernandez, would never leave without a return ticket, are not ones often heard in the US."-Lea Aschkenas, Los Angeles Review of Books "As one of the first female-authored novels to make its way out of Cuba, Mylene Fernandez-Pintado's daring, deeply felt tale of a reticent Spanish literature professor presented with opportunities for love, life, and a far-flung future perfectly captures the Faustian bargain faced by so many contemporary Cubans. Weaving together threads of love, loyalty, home, and hope, Fernandez-Pintado crafts a story of uncommon intensity and irresistible passion, a modern masterpiece that breathes new life into the literature of and about the illusive island."----Bustle "In A Corner of the World, Marian chronicles the complexities of life on the Island with a fluid, clear voice that is at times witty, cynical, and conformed, but always attempts to remain objective and honest ... Hers, as well as every other character's in the novel, is a story about isolation versus connection, about illusion versus reality, and about expectation versus resignation."----Guadalupe Trigos, Literal: Latin American Voices "Mylene Fernandez-Pintado's A Corner of the World, translated by Dick Cluster, weaves an absorbing tale of love, literature, and university teaching in which Havana plays the central role, from its dilapidated Moskovitches (just like Nancy Morejon's real life model) to the never-ending allure of European or American exile. It's a view from the Malecon that rings true."--New West Indian Guide "Dick Cluster renders Marian's confiding, conversational voice into a flexible and engaging English prose that fully does justice to Fernandez-Pintado's appealing narrator. By turns chatty and buoyant, searching and lyrical, Marian offers a glimpse into a contemporary Cuba that is partially opened, half-changed ... Perhaps more powerful than anything penned by its characters is the novel itself, a love letter to the city of Havana in all its chaos, complexity, and beauty."----Charlotte Whittle, Reading in Translation "There is so much to love about A Corner of the World. What particularly drew me in is the colorful setting of contemporary Havana. Though today's Cuba is still a mystery to most Americans, rapid change is occurring. That said, Marian appreciates some of what the first world considers an inconvenience, like '...caller ID is a very scarce service here, a completely unnecessary luxury, so one's anonymity is almost always guaranteed. One of the advantages of underdevelopment: mystery.'"--Underrated Reads "Love in Havana, love found and mislaid. In thoughtfully chosen words--just those needed, and no more--Mylene Fernandez-Pintado offers us a magnificent gift. Her story of lost love and the difficult pursuit of literature is an X-ray of life in Havana, set in a present where glimpses of the future have not yet arrived."--Leonardo Padura, author of The Man Who Loved Dogs and the Mario Conde novels of Havana "This forthright and lyrical novel tears at our hearts with the dilemmas facing its characters and their city, from a perspective that can come only from a woman writer in in full consciousness of her gender. The fresh panorama of Cuban society today is painted without taboos or constraints, with a faith in human possibilities, and above all with a courage that stems from what is most legitimate and durable in ourselves."--Nancy Morejon "What I liked most about A Corner of the World, Mylene Fernandez-Pintado's wonderful novel, is how superbly human it portrays its characters. They are neither political or apolitical, and both brave and uneasy, living in a 21st century Cuba that does not easily conform to expectation. A Corner of the World is about desires and dreams, and, of course, about love."--Achy Obejas "A captivating story of love, emigration, and separation in today's Cuba and today's world. Like the best of Truman Capote, another master of the short novel, Mylene Fernandez-Pintado gives us a cast of unforgettable characters: contradictory, complex, and human."--Fernando Perez, director of Suite Habana, Life Is to Whistle, and Madagascar "A Corner of the World is a story of a city and its people--a love story in which Havana is the ally and also the observer of its inhabitants. To that city Marian, the main character, is our guide, introducing us to settings and characters, to their hopes, frustrations, and rejections. Some live on memories, others take to the seaside Malecon to sustain their unfulfilled dreams. To read this book is to encounter one of the best and most intimate works of Cuban literature of the 21st century."&mash;Mabel Cuesta, author of Cuba post-sovietica: un cuerpo narrado en clave de mujer "Seductive and sensitive, written in clear and direct prose, Mylene Fernandez-Pintado offers us a sad, erotic, tender, and sometimes ironic tale of passion and desertion. In this story, Havana is more than a backdrop--the city becomes a co-protagonist, a confidante, a point of departure and return, and of waiting. This novel is for anyone, anywhere, who cares about what other people lose and find. It's for readers curious about the interior adventures of their fellow human beings, adventures that come with literary pleasures and an alchemy of fiction and life."--Senel Paz, novelist and screen writer of Strawberry and Chocolate, Things I Left in Havana, and In the Sky with Diamonds "No novel I have read in the past two years has attracted me as much as this one--for many reasons, but especially because it manages to capture within its few pages so many key elements of today's Cuba."&dmash;Cira Romero, La Jiribilla