Synopses & Reviews
Cuca Martinez is the youngest child in a brood of five born in pre-revolutionary Cuba. At the age of ten she is sent to live with her godmother; at the age of sixteen she heads for Havana in search of work. The city she discovers is a sultry capital of music and seduction, where life is lived to the beat of mambo and rhumba, and where every event seems a sensual invitation. There she meets Juan, the love of her life, only to see him disappear for eight years. When he returns, on the eve of the Revolution, Cuca believes her dreams are finally realized, but the political climate and his own shady dealings force him into exile in America. And so Cuca, like Cuba itself, waits—for the promised dreams of happiness, plenty, and love—while she watches the country slide into repressive slumber. And while she waits, Cuca and her friends struggle to survive: they improvise, they scavenge, they make love, they remember, and above all, they talk. A finalist for the Planeta Prize, Spain’s most prestigious literary award, I Gave You All I Had is an audacious, brazen, and exuberant work of fiction.
Review
"“An exuberant, original novel.”" Wall Street Journal
Review
"“Destined to be studied in college literature classes for years to come.”" Detroit Free Press
Review
"“A hilariously funny and heartbreaking novel of pre- and post-revolutionary Havana.”" Booklist
Synopsis
A bestseller in Europe, this exuberant novel from one of Cubas most important contemporary writers is as outrageously funny as it is erotically charged.
Synopsis
A bestseller in Europe, this exuberant novel from one of Cuba's most important contemporary writers is as outrageously funny as it is erotically charged.
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About the Author
Zoé Valdés was born in Havana in 1959. A member Cuban delegation to UNESCO and the Cuban Culture Office in Paris in the 1980s, and the former assistant director of the magazine Cine Cubano, she has lived in exile in France since 1995. She is the acclaimed author of several novels, including The Weeping Woman, winner of the 2013 Azorin Award. She is a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters and lives in Paris.Nadia Benabid is an author and translator from the French and Spanish.