LAST SEEN IN HAVANA

A novel told in alternating narratives of one woman searching for an explanation for her mother’s disappearance and another adjusting to life in 1980s Cuba.

Mercedes Spivey, a professional baker who’s recently been widowed, flies from Miami to Cuba in 2019 to take care of her ailing grandmother. Mamina has been the primary parental figure in Mercedes’ life ever since her American mother, whose name she doesn’t know, disappeared when she was a toddler and her Cuban father, Joaquín Montero, died in combat in Angola. Mercedes is determined to make sure that Mamina’s in the best health she can be and that their family’s beautiful but fragile Art Deco home, Villa Santa Marta, can make it through hurricane season. Interspersed with Mercedes’ story are chapters set in the 1980s that follow a free-spirited woman named Sarah as she leaves San Diego for an impulsive trip to Cuba in an attempt to get away from her parents, who try to control her every move. Falling in love with Cuban soldier Joaquín Montero convinces her to stay in Havana and make the island her own. As Mercedes begins sorting through childhood memories with Mamina, Sarah makes a home with Joaquín, all the while learning about Cuban culture and customs, from the language to the rations. Unspooling limited information from Mamina, Mercedes continues to wonder if it’s worth searching for her mother, or if the woman’s long absence means that she’s dead.

Interest in the past supersedes interest in the present until the ending inevitably wraps things up the only way possible.