C
Chanel CleetonContemporary Romance · Historical Fiction
Next Year in Havana
Synopsis
After her grandmother's death, a Cuban-American writer travels to Havana to scatter her ashes, uncovering a family secret hidden since the revolution. In 1958 Havana, her grandmother, Elisa, a sugar baron's daughter, began a forbidden affair with a revolutionary amidst growing political unrest. Decades later, Marisol navigates Cuba's complex beauty and finds herself drawn to a man with his own secrets, learning from her grandmother's past what it means to be courageous.
How it reads
Prose complexity 1/10
Content warnings (1)
Trauma
Genres
Characters
Marisol FerreraProtagonist
Elisa PerezProtagonist
PabloSupporting
A revolutionary in 1958 Cuba who becomes Elisa's forbidden love interest.
LuisSupporting
A history professor and secret dissident in present-day Havana who becomes Marisol's love interest.
Frequently asked questions
Is Next Year in Havana part of a series?
Yes — it's the first book in Chanel Cleeton's loosely connected "Perez Family" series (followed by When We Left Cuba, The Last Train to Key West, The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba, and Our Last Days in Barcelona), which follows members of the Perez family across different eras. The author recommends reading it before When We Left Cuba and Our Last Days in Barcelona, though the other books are set earlier and can stand alone.
Is Next Year in Havana based on a true story?
It's a work of fiction, but author Chanel Cleeton has said it was inspired by her own family's history of fleeing Cuba, and that writing the novel helped her uncover parts of her family's own story.
Was Next Year in Havana a Reese's Book Club pick?
Yes, it was selected as a Hello Sunshine x Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick in 2018, and it became a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.