Before the After

"Before the After" is the title of the first book in English of a projected trilogy mirroring the Spanish historical biography titled "Habana 505" written by the Cuban Fernando Pruna and the Frenchman Cyriaque Griffon and published in 2018. Initially conceived as a translation from Spanish to English of "Habana 505," it soon departs the original text's confines and takes a life of its own. Amplified by the author's delightful new anecdotes of his life before the communist takeover of Cuba, Fernando Pruna plunges into an insightful analysis of the causes that brought about the Cuban Communist Revolution and the political forces that drove Fulgencio Batista to flee Cuba on the 31st of December 1958. The veridic autobiography of a consummate young Cuban playboy socialite converted into a freedom fighter by overwhelming historical circumstances that define his existence's fate. Framed by historical events before and leading to the Communist takeover of Cuba, we share the life of this privileged young man up to when darkness descends upon his country, and he determines to confront the radical political transformation conceived by Fidel Castro and the resulting consequences of his confrontation. "Before the After" borders the first book's timeline as taking place before the Communist takeover of Cuba and a short time after that. In the writing process, the second and third books resume an extraordinary labyrinth of encounters over a twenty-year struggle, including counterrevolutionary activities, guerrilla warfare, seventeen years of imprisonment, communist concentration camps, prison escapes, and the imminent execution by firing squad.