Having captivated readers with such gems of travel writing as Video Night in Kathmandu, Pico Iyer now presents a novel whose central character is another place: the melancholy, ebullient, and dazzlingly inconsistent island that is Castro's Cuba. On almost every page you can smell the dust, the cheap perfume and the rum of Havana today, or better still, tonight.--Los Angeles Times.From the Trade Paperback edition.