A Simple Habana Melody

“Pulitzer-winner Hijuelos is at his massively engaging best. A masterpiece of history, music, wonder, and sorrow.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Hijuelos triumphs in capturing the sights and sounds of Habana at the edge of modernity."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Hijuelos magically conveys the teeming excitement of musical Cuba, incorporates real characters such as Buster Keaton, George Gershwin, and Al Jolson, and deftly portrays Levis's sexual ambiguities, which include his platonic love for a talented Cuban mulata, an earthier liaison with a beautiful Jewish Resistance fighter, and an oblique but lifelong fascination with the charms of men better-looking than he is. Powerfully evocative of the music and moods of the period, this novel is highly recommended as both psychological and "show biz" fiction."—Library Journal, starred review

"Perhaps no other contemporary novelist has managed to sustain a melancholy mood more convincingly than Hijuelos does in this haunting story of a Cuban composer whose life is an agonizing mix of joy and sadness, creativity and repression."—Booklist, starred review

"A nuanced novel about art and beauty."—Entertainment Weekly

"On every page of this slyly masterful book we hear the sound of song."—Chicago Tribune

"The writing has a gossamer beauty."—People

"Keeps us enthralled, then lingers in our minds like the haunting notes of a song about longing and loss, hope and disappointment, suffering and salvation. Hijuelos draws you—deeply and inextricably—into his eloquently romantic and elegiac new novel." —Oprah magazine

"Habana is a seductive and elegiac book about music, love, and sex."—USA Today

"A bittersweet elegy for the pre-Castro capital." —New York magazine