The Lonely Crossing of Juan Cabrera - Hardcover

J. Joaquín Fraxedas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312088973 ISBN 13: 9780312088972

Publisher: St Martins Press, 1993

Synopsis

Tired of their life in Cuba, three Havana men lash inner tubes together to fashion a makeshift raft and set out across the ninety miles separating their native land from the Florida Keys

About this title

About the Author:

A graduate of the University of Florida College of Law, J. Joaquín Fraxedas first established a distinguished career in civil trial practice, specializing in the trial of medical, products liability, and other complex cases, before concentrating exclusively on the practice of mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He lives in Florida. The Lonely Crossing of Juan Cabrera is his first novel.

From Publishers Weekly:

Three men flee Castro's Cuba in 1990 on a makeshift raft bound for Florida in this harrowing, taut yet lyrical first novel. Fraxedas, who escaped Communist Cuba at the age of 10 and now practices law in Orlando, has flown rescue missions to pick up Cuban raft people, and he puts his firsthand knowledge to good use. The protagonist, physics professor Juan Cabrera, watches helplessly as gunmen on a Cuban patrol boat fatally shoot one of his two companions; later, his other mate is devoured by a shark in a terrifyingly real scene. Other scenes introduce Juan's girlfriend Carmen, an artist who once worked for Castro's propaganda machine but recently defected to Miami, where we are introduced to an assortment of Cuban exiles aching with longing for their homeland. The main focus, however, is on Juan's inner struggle to overcome his massive guilt for decades of silent accommodating a tyrannical regime. Flashbacks graphically reenact the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, showing how CIA officiers' condescension toward Cuban recruits contributed to disaster. A Spanish-language edition, La Traversia Solitaria de Juan Cabrera ($18.95 *
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0312088973
• ISBN 13: 9780312088972
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 174