Fighting Castro: A Love Story

by Kay Abella

The true story of a young Cuban doctor imprisoned by Castro as a resistance leader. His wife must choose between staying in Cuba to help her husband survive prison and taking their three young children to freedom in Miami. The book intertwines the story of his iron will in enduring Castro's brutality with his wife's struggles in a deteriorating Havana where she is treated as the wife of a traitor. A portrait of life under Castro and of an extraordinary couple whose relationship evolves and deepens as they live with the consequences of their decisions. Kay Abella is a professional journalist, author, and editor who has been a magazine journalist in New York and in France where she worked as a translator and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. She has published two non-fiction books, one on professional development and one on Jungian type. She is now a full-time writer of fiction and nonfiction, living in Connecticut with her Cuban-American husband. www.kayabella.com

360 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jean Marie Nelson]

Great subject which interested me, but I could not get through this book. Style of writing, perhaps?

[Alicia]

Not an easy book to read. Took me back to the era that I missed by having our parents send my 8 yr old sister and me to the school in Philadelphia in December of 1960, and then following us in the summer of 1961. Not only did I read about the horror of the treatment Castro's political prisoners endured for decades (2 of Maurice's cousins were in that group), but it also made me understand what the people of my parents generation went through when they stayed in the island. I knew first hand what the exile reality was, not that of the ones who stayed behind. Of the 30 kids in my class at the Catholic girls' school in Havana, only one stayed behind and she died young. I had no idea of the specifics of their tribulations.

[Ann]

This was written by my good friend, Kay Abella.
It is the true story of Lino and Emmy Fernandez who are family friends of Kay's Cuban husband's family.

Lino is imprisoned and tortured by Castro and his forces and Emmy must make a heart wrenching choice -- to stay in Cuba while Lino is in prison or to go with her 3 small children to Miami. They do not see their children for 18 years.

Kay captures the details of Cuba -- crumbling Havana, the terrible conditions in the jails, Lino's indominitable spirit and the emotions Emmy goes through missing her children, yet needing to stay to give her husband hope.

It is a great read -- and I learned about Cuba in the process of reading it.

[Katrina]

The thing I enjoyed most about this book was how it puts "everyday" faces on the facts and timeline of events in Cuba during the Castro regime, from its inception to the present day. It's one thing to read about the revolution and its fallout in history books, and quite another to read the story of a family that could be any one of ours and the decisions, fear and oppression that they have faced.

[Laura Pursell Byrnes]

I am not liking the way this book is written. Very interesting story which coulld benefit from a better treatment. Not great literature, and that's ok, but the style wavers between a journalistic style and fiction. She constructs full conversations from interviews with her subjects. It's not working for me. I hope it gets better...