Stephen Kimber
It all began on a beach in Cuba in the early 2000s. I’d written more than half a dozen books at the time, including one novel, all set in Nova Scotia.
My wife suggested, over mojitos one sunny afternoon, that I expand my literary horizons and write something not based so close to home.
I returned to Cuba in 2009 planning to research a novel — a love story — but quickly got waylaid by a truth-is-more-urgent true tale of five Cuban spies then in prison in the US. That led to the 2013 publication of "What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five."
I finally returned to my Cuba novel, "The Sweetness in the Lime," which has now been published by Nimbus/Vagrant.
I think it’s a better book for the 10 years in between, largely because I got to spend a lot of time in Cuba, meeting people, seeing their lives, hearing their stories.
I like to think of myself as in my Cuba-ist period!
My wife suggested, over mojitos one sunny afternoon, that I expand my literary horizons and write something not based so close to home.
I returned to Cuba in 2009 planning to research a novel — a love story — but quickly got waylaid by a truth-is-more-urgent true tale of five Cuban spies then in prison in the US. That led to the 2013 publication of "What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five."
I finally returned to my Cuba novel, "The Sweetness in the Lime," which has now been published by Nimbus/Vagrant.
I think it’s a better book for the 10 years in between, largely because I got to spend a lot of time in Cuba, meeting people, seeing their lives, hearing their stories.
I like to think of myself as in my Cuba-ist period!
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