«The Cigar Roller» by Pablo Medina

The celebrated Cuban American poet and novelist offers “a fine portrait of a hedonist and a cad” set in “the Cuban, expatriate community in Florida” (The New York Times).Pablo Medina’s The Cigar Roller recounts the life of Cuban master cigar roller Amadeo Terra. A proud and capricious man, tobacco has been the center of his life, the source of his passion. Though he committed many sins in his time, he was always forgiven due to his considerable talents with the leaves. An imperious patriarch of enormous appetites, Amadeo now lies in a Florida hospital after suffering a stroke. And only now does he finally look back at his previously unexamined life.One day, his nurse feeds him mango from a baby-food jar—a change from the tasteless mush he frequently rejects—and the taste brings memories of his life in Havana flooding back to him. He recalls his turbulent, passionate relationship with his wife Julia, his numerous romantic transgressions, the three sons he’s kept at a distance, the political strife that forced his family to relocate from Cuba to Florida, and finally the tragedy that he’s kept locked away all these years.The Cigar Roller is “an evocative snapshot of an era gone up in smoke,” and a portrait of a once robust man who, at the end of his imperfect life, clamors for a quotient of dignity and grace as he comes to terms with his regrets (Detroit Free Press).