**REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**This book was okay. I loved the elements of lore and various cultures. The whole story relied on the various fairy tales and legends of the three cultures being handed down through each generation, when the book ITSELF was just one of the same: a fairy tale that Cecelia and Miguel would also (one day) tell.The author gave readers three different origins that eventually all grew together into one happy ending. A lot of the prose was captivating and beautifully written. Although, there were quite a few unnecessary characters, events, and plot development that hindered the flow of the text. Firstly, I struggled with Cecelia as the "protagonist" because I felt like her character was under developed and slightly unnecessary. The book gives one thematic suggestions of: our past never leaving us, accepting who we are and where we have come from etc. But, the book retells AMALIA'S history, not Cecelia's. Shouldn't the text have been based more around Cecelia's acceptance of HER OWN history, instead of learning to accept the fact that she is a Cuban in Miami through someone elses multi-ethnic Cuban heritage? I understand that she was attempting to separate us from Amalia's tale, as we are supposed to learn about it THROUGH Cecelia, but the author sets up the novel in such a way that Miguel (Amalia's grandson) should have been the protagonist, versus a total stranger. I suppose Chaviano was attempting to connect the lines of fate between Cecelia and Miguel just as she had done with: Amalia/Tiger, Caradid/Husband, Mercedes/Pepe, Angela/Juanco... etc. But, for me, the connection felt too forced. Next, Chaviano attempted to place Cecelia in "real time" (our point of view) by giving her menial acts to complete, such as: paying toll fare, driving around, squeezing a lemon, doing dishes...etc. I felt that these descriptions always drew my attention away from the topic at hand; being whatever she was thinking of or talking to someone about. Cecelia's character is largely introspective and melancholic, therefore she should probably remain a thoughtful, undiluted character in order to portray the importance of her self discovery. Not only this, BUT, Chaviano tends to break up these moments of introspection and plot development with trivial acts, then will IMMEDIATELY change the subject back into something more serious, or back into Amalia's stories. I found this SUPER annoying. Cecelia would have remained stronger if she was a more social character with AGENCY alongside of her introspection; if her detailed actions had MEANING to the text versus being filler. Instead, her character felt like a robot.There is a possibility that this "clefting" wouldn't be as heavily felt in the original Spanish, or maybe if it was translated a different way.The lack of character development, or having too many characters, also affected this read for me. The tertiary characters such as Lisa, Melisa and Gaia would have been more important if the focus on the phantom house was stronger. They could have remained as unidentified strangers that spoke or ran into Cecelia and would have maintained just as much significance. Freddy and Lupe were only (poor) instigators of Cecelia meeting Amalia, which, if it was really fate, she would have met without them. Essentially, they are all disposable and it is clear Chaviano had a hard time with initially and continuing plot development in this text. Another problem, which also deals with the excess characters is the development of the idea of the "phantom house". Chaviano probably created this allusion in order to allow Cecelia to demonstrate how Cecelia will come to terms with her Cuban heritage. But, if one notices, Cecelia never comes into direct contact with this house herself. Instead, it's all the secondary or tertiary characters who experience this *thing* that is supposed to represent her past. Metaphorically, I assume, one could argue that the author was attempting to detail Ceci's refusal to accept her Cuban heritage:a prototypical psychological refusal of one's heritage being the refusal of one's self. Hence the basis of Cecelia's involvement in the text. (Proving she might not be useless after all.) But! That still doesn't explain why people around her are more affected by the phantom house than she! Or, like I said earlier, why it's AMALIA's story and family and only tiny, UN-influential pieces of information about Cecelia's ghostly family. Hmmm...In spite of all of my negativity, the author was very good with laying out clues for the reader to predict the ending and become involved with the text. By the time one enters the sixth part of the novel, the ending is very, very easy to guess. I think I had it pegged about half way though the book, even before one of the final characters was introduced. The prose was easy to read and thoughtfully written. The descriptions were very vivid and the initial introductions of Caridad, Angela and Ku-Fai were mesmerizing and kept me reading non-stop. I feel as though the author had a very strong beginning and potentially may have rushed through the novel and attempted to force a tie between all these characters.I do admit that I enjoyed the story. Like I said: these problems an inconsistencies could be the main fault of a bad translation.Maybe I didn't enjoy it because I am not a hopeless romantic and that might be required to enjoy the persistent theme of "soul mates" and "true love reigns". Or maybe I am just too critical of the texts I read now-a-days.

Latin American literature is famous for the genre of magical realism, but this was really only "magical" (and how I wish I meant that as a euphemism for "good"). It blends myths and concepts of magic from the Spanish, African and Chinese cultures that contributed to making Cuba, placing this hybridised concept of magic even in present-day Miami, which could potentially be interesting, but in this book it's not.To be honest, most of this book is not interesting. As the blurb will tell you, the novel begins when reclusive Cuban emigrant Cecilia is dragged out of the house by two male friends who she ditches to meet an old woman, Amalia, at a Miami bar. The book is made up of short chapters that alternate between telling Amalia's entire family history and Cecilia's very boring, mundane existence.Basically, Cecilia is a journalist and she is investigating some ghost house, since apparently she works for the kind of publication where a ghost house is a valid idea for a story. She gets involved in a lot of kooky New Age stuff and she also, at some point, meets a guy (Roberto) who is a rich businessman who just can't stop talking about his successful business and also, all the businesses he will open in Cuba once his profit-minded family can return. Cecilia doesn't even like him that much but she's devastated when he dumps her, to the point that she develops a psychosomatic illness that she is able to banish just by willing her blood pressure to go down. HmmmAmalia's family history is more interesting, but still not that great. The characters aren't very well realised; they mostly just kind of blur together and I had to keep referring to the family trees in the first few pages because I just could not remember who had done what, or even who was who. Also, guess what, (almost) everyone was a successful small business owner. It was very unrealistic.So we come to the other reason I didn't like this book in addition to the badly realised characters, the awkward pacing, and so on, it was kind of right-wing. When early on it talks about shortages (Cecilia's musing that she'd never had hot chocolate in Cuba), the US embargo goes unmentioned. Later, you have the clairvoyant Delfina claiming that the failure of the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion will be the greatest tragedy ever to befall Cuba, you have one of the small-business-owning (actually by this time, franchise-chain-owning) characters whingeing that he supported the rebels and don't they understand that private property is sacrosanct blah blah blah blah blah. Over the entire book, Cecilia alternately conceives of Cuba as hell or else a once-beautiful country trashed and burned by criminals. This is frustrating. Mostly, it's just so damned shallow. I'm not trying to say it shouldn't have criticised Castro's regime at all the pettiness making emigrants wait years for their exit permits, the stifling of dissent, persecution and harassment of dissidents etc. are all important but any analysis of Cuba that states that the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion was the greatest tragedy ever to befall Cuba is just trash. I mean, it's also a book largely set among the Cuban emigrant milieu in Miami written by a Cuban emigrant, so maybe I'm expecting a bit much from this politically. But like, there is left-wing criticism of the Castro regime and there is right-wing criticism, and I wasn't expecting this book to be so far to the right (the blurb makes it seem pretty apolitical).So. Ultimately this is a kind of boring book that serves as a lament to the losses of the old Cuban bourgeoisie, and I did not like it. Unless you have no choice (like you find yourself in an airport where the bookstore has nothing except copies of this?), avoid.

I have just finished a journey through the ethnic history of a people - my people - in a land of love and blood, as well as magically captivating landscapes in which sun and moon dance to the intoxicating rhythms of a gently rolling sea. I have found myself in these pages. Chaviano's enthralling story has wrapped me in a nostalgic dream, one that had, inexplicably enough, dwelt in my subconscious mind for years. It was the dream of a beautiful island paradise, one where love is indeed eternal, where the warm breezes of the Malecon enticed one with their romantic whisperings, where the night pulsed with vibrant music, the music of the masters--Ernesto Lecuona, Benny More... This dream awakened once more in me as I read this enchanting story, which weaves the tales of three different families, three different ethnic groups, into one single thread. The experiences of each family also serve to highlight key periods of Cuban history. There is the Chinese family, who seeks refuge from war in a land already sheltering their fellow countrymen. There is the African family, in the person of a young girl cruelly snatched from the bosom of her tribe, to be sold into slavery. Then there is the family from Spain, whose female members inherit a strangely humorous curse. Cecilia, the protagonist, ties everything together through her unusual conversations with Amalia, a mysterious old woman whom she meets in a Little Havana bar, a Miami neighborhood thus nicknamed for its heavy concentration of Cuban immigrants in the '60s and '70s. Cuban boleros play in the background, while vistas of a Havana from a bygone era roll on a screen set up next to the dance floor. The whole tale unfolds as Cecilia, feeling existentially lost in Miami, sits by Amalia's side, raptly listening to the woman's tale of the three families, of growing up listening to the giants of Cuban music, of her loving relationship with Rita Montaner, the great Cuban actress. Cecilia listens, and her nostalgia and sense of loss grow, even as, in her life away from the bar and these enthralling tales, she starts to investigate a very strange phenomenon - a haunted house that appears in different locations all over Miami, as it once also appeared in Havana. There are humorous touches in this magical book, as well, such as the already mentioned curse, and one of Cecilia's friends, who calls himself "La Lupe", after a Cuban singer of recent years. One cannot possibly forget "Fidelina", the parrot who screams out popular Communist slogans, to the constant dismay of her owner. The comical parrot satirizes the Cuban dictator she is obviously named for. The plot weaves its serendipitous way from Amalia's tale to Cecilia's present-day life, from Havana to Miami. Through this technique, Chaviano metaphorically expresses the unceasing dance of longing felt by all Cubans who have had to uproot themselves in order to find a freedom denied to them by an oppressive regime. Magical, enthralling, enchanting...this novel is a mesmerizing tapestry of the Cuban experience, told by a literary master. It is the quintessential Cuban novel. It is the story of my heart and soul, as it is that of all of us born in that magical, eternal land of eternal love...

This is a family saga that takes place along two parallel timelines. The modern story revolves around the paranormal investigations of Cecilia, a young journalist researching a phantom house that appears and disappears in different parts of Miami. The other one - which begins in the 19th century in China, Africa and Spain - is told by an old woman whom Cecilia meets in a bar. Different magical or supernatural events conspire to make these three stories from the past begin to mix. If you like family sagas, Gothic and fantasy literature, historical novels, and even SciFi, you'd love this book. One of the best things is the interaction between the fantastic and the real worlds. I specially liked the connection between humans and fantasy creatures. The characters are complex and rich, full of contradictions and doubts about themselves. By the end of the book, you may probably have two or more favorites--and probably one of them will not be human...

Since this is a Spanish novel, i'm posting my humble review in both English and Spanish, just in case any English speaking reader cares for the past (and present) of a broken country, the sadness of those you lost their home and the beauty of 4 different love stories. I have to admit have mixed feelings with this novel. The story Cuba is, (as heartbreaking as it is for me to say it) resonating too much with my own country for me not to feel closely the anger, the fear and the sadness of the characters in this book. But whats a book if not a little box of feelings and memories that will stick with you as long as you treasure them? The only reason i don't give this book the 5 stars that it might deserve for making me feel this much, its because not everyone will be affected the same way. I think you need to know that fear, that anger, that sense of not belonging. If you haven't, the main character, Cecilia might come out as a very boring character in the book. The story of the other 3 families was beautiful but keeping track of everyone could prove difficult. It has a family tree, yes, but thats also a spoiler you may or may not want to discover too soon. Either way, it's worth giving a try.Tengo que admitir que tengo sentimientos encontrados con esta novela. La historia de Cuba está (y me rompe el corazón tener que decirlo) resonando demasiado con la de mi propio país como para no sentir de cerca la rabia, el miedo y la tristeza de los personajes de este libro. ¿Pero qué es un libro si no una cajita de sentimientos y recuerdos que se quedan contigo mientras los atesores en tu corazón?La única razón por la que no doy este libro las 5 estrellas que quizá se merezca por hacerme sentir tanto, es porque no todo el mundo se verá afectado de la misma manera. Creo que solo él que lo ha vivido sabe lo que es el miedo, el enojo, esa sensación de no pertenecer a ninguna parte. Si no lo conoces, Cecilia podrá parecerles muy aburrida. La historia de las otras 3 familias fue hermosa, pero seguirles la pista a todos quizá sea bastante complicado. El libro cuenta con un árbol genealógico, sí, pero eso es también un spoiler que quizá no quieran descubrir demasiado pronto.De cualquier manera, vale la pena darle una oportunidad.