Despite the end of the Great War, life was still very difficult in 1922 for people and especially Jewish people in Poland (which is now Russia). Good food, or any food at all, is rare and life in America seems like a luxurious dream. With an older sister already in America, Pearl and her 18-year-old younger sister Frieda are delighted when their father scrapes together enough money to send them to America. With high hopes and very little money, the Khan sisters are happy to leave a life of fear and terror as ongoing pogroms and harassment leave them fearing for their lives. With so many other Europeans immigrating for the promise of a good life in the United States, the two women fret about all the delays in getting their steerage passage on the ship. While in a long and tiring line, they hear that it may be easier to leave if they go to Cuba first and then to America. So, they thought: Why not? What can go wrong when it was a Yiddish person that told them to do so? HOTEL CUBA is an amazing and fascinating novel by award-winning author Aaron Hamburger whose prose will transport you to such unusual and diverse places that you can instantly and vividly imagine in your mind. Hamburger is a highly talented author who is skilled in interweaving his characters in a brilliant literary tapestry of history and compelling, dramatic narrative. Hamburger's character development is superb as he introduces his cast of unusual, yet highly authentic characters. As a storyteller, he vividly describes their lives and changes in fortune all resplendent in captivating details. I love the realistic, responsible, and often hungry lead protagonist Frieda as she manages turbulent and trying times while often thinking of the skills mismatch between her and her sister as she struggles to learn Spanish and English which come so easily to the happy-go-lucky Pearl. If you appreciate first-rate historical fiction, are already a fan of Hamburger's other intriguing books, or simply appreciate a really terrific character-driven story, then HOTEL CUBA is for you! It definitely was not what I expected, and I now consider HOTEL CUBA one of my top reads of 2023! Bookys
From the award-winning author of The View from Stalin's Head, a stunning novel about two sheltered Russian Jewish sisters, desperate to get to America to make a new life, who find themselves trapped in the sultry, hedonistic world of 1920s Havana.
Fleeing the chaos of World War I and the terror of the Soviet Revolution, practical, sensible Pearl Kahn and her lovestruck, impulsive younger sibling Frieda sail for America to join their sister in New York. But discriminatory new immigration laws bar their entry, and the young women are turned back at Ellis Island. With few options, Pearl and Frieda head for Havana, Cuba, convinced they will find a way to overcome this setback.
At first, life in big-city Prohibition-era Havana is overwhelming, like nothing Pearl and Frieda have ever experienced—or could have ever imagined in the rural shtetl where they grew up. As the sisters begin to adjust, their plans for going to America together become complicated. Frieda falls for the not-so-dreamy man of her dreams while Pearl’s life opens up unexpectedly, offering her a taste of freedom and heady romance, and an opportunity to build a future on her own terms. Though to do so, she must confront her past and the shame she has long carried.
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