The Island of Eternal Love
SynopsisPlot
In an effort to escape her solitude in Miami, Cecilia seeks refuge in a bar where she meets Amalia, a mysterious old woman whose fascinating tale keeps Cecilia returning night after night. Her powerful story of long-vanished epochs weaves the saga of three families from far-flung pieces of the world. A suicide in China unleashes a chain of family reactions; a strange curse pursues certain women in a Spanish town; and a young woman is seized from her home on the African coast and transported to an unfamiliar world. These characters' lives will become entwined over time, from Cuba under Spanish colonial rule to the present day. Ardent, predestined loves from the past will gain renewed strength in Cecilia, who is also obsessed by the mystery of a phantom house that appears and disappears throughout the city of Miami, and whose secret she is attempting to discover.
Story
About this book
In a Miami bar, a young Cuban woman named Cecilia meets Amalia, an elderly stranger whose story is so absorbing that Cecilia returns night after night to hear more. Amalia's account follows three families with origins in China, Spain, and the African coast, and their separate histories eventually converge in Cuba under Spanish colonial rule before reaching the present day. A suicide in China sets off consequences across generations, a curse follows certain women in a Spanish town, and on the African coast a young woman is taken from her home to an unfamiliar land.
Cecilia's own life in Miami runs alongside the older narrative. She is preoccupied by a phantom house that appears and vanishes across the city, and her search for its explanation becomes part of the novel's larger structure. Past loves described in Amalia's story begin to echo in Cecilia's present circumstances, linking her personal isolation to the long arc of migration, displacement, and attachment that the three families represent.
Daina Chaviano is a Cuban author, and this novel has appeared in 25 languages, which makes it the most widely translated Cuban novel to date. The story moves between spoken recollection in the bar and Cecilia's own inquiries, so the past arrives mainly through another person's voice.
