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CARLOS RUBIO was born in Cuba and came to the United States while still an adolescent. After finishing high school, he attended Concord College, West Virginia University and the University of Maryland. A bilingual novelist, in Spanish he has written Saga, Orisha and Hubris. In 1989 his novel Quadrivium received the Nuevo León International Prize for Novels. In English he is the the author of Orpheus’s Blues, Secret Memories and American Triptych, a trilogy of satirical novels. In 2004 his novel Dead Time received Foreword’s Magazine Book of the Year Award. His novel Forgotten Objects was published by Editions Dedicaces in 2014 and was a finalist in the Readers Choice Awards in 2015. More recently, his novel Doble Filo was a finalist in the 2018 Reinaldo Arenas International Prize for Novels and published in 2019 by Ediciones Alféizar in Spain.

Italian Tilt is a novel that goes beyond exploring how Donald, the main character, finds romance and discovers a new culture while on a trip to Italy. It also deals with the nature of personal growth, the nature of friendship, as well as family conflict and reconciliation.

Kindle Price: $5.49

Category: Literature & Fiction; Teen & Young Adult

Basada en un hecho real sucedido en la ciudad de La Habana a finales de los años 40s(el asesinato de una prostituta llamada Lola a manos de uno de sus amantes), la novela Doble Filo nos conduce a través de sus páginas hasta este violento suceso.

La mayor parte de la novela está narrada en primera persona, desde el punto de vista de otro de los amantes de Lola, un abogado prominente cuya relación con ella comenzó cuando él era aún estudiante universitario. Un narrador omnisciente nos ofrece, en tercera persona, episodios de la niñez de Lola, los cuales hacen relucir su personalidad egoísta y caprichosa. Las conversaciones telefónicas entre dos de las vecinas de Lola –amas de casa que cultivan el arte del chisme— ofrecen al lector una tercera interpretación de esa misteriosa mujer.

Pero Doble Filo va más allá de la vida de Lola. Es un texto que explora minuciosamente la obsesión de un hombre por una mujer, obsesión que se impone por sobre todo lo que es importante en su vida, que lo conduce a una traición total, hasta convertirla a ella en el centro de su universo.

Kindle Price: $2.99

Category: Literature & Fiction

Un aparato de aire acondicionado descompuesto, cerveza tibia, bomberos dementes y una misteriosa carta. Estos son los puntos de partida de SAGA, una novela que arrastra al lector en una búsqueda obsesiva de una mujer. Su siempre cambiante imagen sumerge al protagonista en un laberinto surrealista de deseo, y a la postre en una alucinante sucesión de imágenes donde la realidad se desvanece para convertirse en una distorsión de sí misma.

Kindle Price: $2.99

Category: Literature & Fiction

Forgotten Objects traces the life of Anna d’Amio, daughter of opera singers Louis and Francesca d’Amio, from Mussolini’s Italy to the city of Pittsburgh during the mid sixties. The novel proper is made up of three parts: Italy, Cuba and United States. Married at seventeen and widowed at twenty, Anna leaves war-torn Italy to find her fortune in Cuba, she eventually meets Ramón Contreras, a wealthy tobacco grower who later becomes her second husband. The idyllic world that the couple had so laboriously built suddenly comes crashing down after the communist take over of the island and Ramón’s sudden and violent death.

Now with two daughters under her care, Anna soon realizes that there is no future for them in Cuba, so she opts to send them to the United States through the Pedro Pan Program. Eventually she comes to the US herself, but by then the girls have been placed in foster homes. It is during this stage of her life, penniless and without influence, that she must make the greatest sacrifices to regain custody of her daughters. At the end of the novel, we find a series of letters, all dated 2005, that were exchanged by the sisters after their mother passed away. Anna left behind a box containing a collection of sundry items that she had collected throughout her life. Cognizant that these were significant for their mother, they attempt to piece together a sketch of her life through these forgotten objects.

Kindle Price: $9.99

Category: Literature & Fiction

Expert Latin-American satirist Carlos Rubio presents a new tongue-in-cheek masterpiece that scales new heights of satire even as it follows the life of a young protagonist in his journey through growing up and into manhood. Rubio pulls out all the stops on ironic humor in American Tripytch.

Rubio explores the potential of transformation in a young boy as he moves from one experience to the next in three volumes filled with the ironical embellishments of the Neo-Baroque writing style. In the first part entitled The Neophyte, Rubio unfolds the life of a young boy rescued from a flood by a somewhat dysfunctional convent of nuns. Instead of the expected moral upbringing instilled, he grows up to be virile and brazen with a perspective that is nothing short of hedonistic.

Bullwhip, the second installment, continues the adventures of the adolescent young man as he enters high school. He brings with him his solidifying philosophies and an “I don’t care” attitude, silently reconstructing the strict, academic atmosphere according to his whims. He gains his own notoriety, even as he faces down the local gang, and dodges the sexual advances of the vice principal. And while the individuals that oppose him get him cornered, a delightful twist of events sees him coming out on top.

California Fever concludes the exciting trilogy, exploring a more contemporary theme of events that begin with the young protagonist losing his memory after surviving an earthquake. Before long, he would venture into the life of a rock star as The Rocker, until he would be persuaded to enter politics. However, all this conceals a most unexpected ending, the consummation of what would seem an aborted desire of the hero’s soul.

Absolutely hyperbolic, parodical and phallic, American Triptych will tickle the brains and funnybones of readers who don’t mind the racy overtones and unrestrained sarcasm beneath the funny storyline.

Kindle Price: $9.99

Category: Literature & Fiction; Teen & Young Adult