THE WOMAN SHE WAS

Celia Cantú's quiet life in Havana begins to unravel when her former fiancé, who split for Miami a decade earlier, returns to pursue business opportunities in a rapidly-changing Cuba. Joe has no qualms about challenging his older brother Luis, a high-level Cuban bureaucrat, for Celia's affections. As Celia attempts to placate the competing brothers, she is unnerved by moments when she feels that her persona is becoming interchangeable with that of Celia Sánchez, the revolutionary heroine for whom she was named, and a long-time intimate of Fidel Castro. Attempting to get to the root of this mental aberration, Celia walks into an improbable intimacy with a stranger - only to be jerked back to her 'real' life by the disappearance of her 16-year-old niece, Liliana. Forced to conclude that Liliana may have become a jinetera (hustler or prostitute), Celia sets out across the island to find her. The search for Liliana takes Celia to Cuba's popular tourist destinations, but the past draws her to the wild Sierra Maestre where, amidst footnotes of her nation's history, she tries to find the woman her psyche wants her to believe she was. Everything, including the true character of the child she has raised, eludes her until things are literally exploding around her and violence threatens to destroy them both.

Rosa Jordan grew up in the Florida Everglades, earned degrees from universities in California and Mexico, and immigrated to Canada in 1980. For many years she has explored Cuba, the setting of this novel. She and her partner Derek Choukalos co-authored a cycling guide to the island, and her autobiographical travel narrative, Dangerous Places: Travels on the Edge, also has sections set in Cuba.