Our House in the Last World

by Oscar Hijuelos, Pablo Medina (Foreword by)

Overview

A 35th anniversary edition of the acclaimed debut novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. With a new Foreword by Pablo Medina.

Set in New York City in the 1950s and 1960s, this is the coming-of-age story of Hector Santinio, the American-born son of Cuban immigrants, who is haunted by tales of “home”—a Cuba of ancestral memory, beauty, sensuousness, and ease, a place he has never known—and by the sudden death of his father. His struggle toward adulthood is inseparable from his struggle to understand his “Cubanness” and to come to terms with his father, an exuberant, charming, and generous hotel cook who drank too much, disappeared for days, and gambled the family’s money away.  Moving, intimate, and highly autobiographical, this unforgettable novel of immigrant life is written with the same compelling power of language, character, and narrative that won Oscar Hijuelos worldwide acclaim.  Includes an Introduction and Afterword by the author, as well as a new Foreword by Pablo Medina, author of Cubop City Blues and the memoir Exiled Memories, aming others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892554843
Publisher:	Persea Books
Publication date:	12/12/2017
Edition description:	35th Anniversary Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

The child of Cuban immigrants, Oscar Hijuelos (1951–2013) was an American-born novelist and the first Hispanic writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (1990).  He also won the Rome Prize (1985) and The Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature (2000). His eight novels have been translated into twenty-five languages.

Pablo Medina is the author of the novel The Return of Felix Nogara and the memoir Exiled Memories (both Persea), and the novels The Cigar Roller, Cubop City Blues, among others.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

August 24, 1951

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Education:

B.A., City College of the City University of New York, 1975; M.A.,1976

Editorial Reviews

"Just about the finest first novel ever written . . . one of those great works of art that breaks your heart and yet miraculously makes you whole - a towering achievement."

Junot Díaz

"What a pleasure that Our House in the Last World, in a new edition, will be readily available when we most need it, a story that stands up for the dignity of American immigrants."

Esmeralda Santiago

''Our House in the Last World'' is a novel of great warmth and tenderness. . . . he never loses the syntax of magic, which transforms even the unspeakable into a sort of beauty.
— The New York Times

Edith Milton

The chaotic experience of Cubans transplanted to New York City throbs through the narrator's voice in this debut novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love . ``Elegiac as well as bittersweet and celebratory, the lusty tone of this novel compensates for its erratic structure,'' stated PW. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist launched his career with this 1983 title. The autobiographical work is the coming-of-age story of Hector Santino. Born in New York City to Cuban immigrants, Hector learns about his parent's native country and his heritage through their stories. This edition contains a new introduction and afterword by Hijuelos. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

"Never loses the syntax of magic...a novel of great warmth and tenderness."

The New York Times Book Review