Waiting for Snow in Havana
| Company type | Memoir |
|---|---|
| Industry | Literature |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Founder | Carlos Eire |
| Products | Book |
Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy is a 2003 memoir by Carlos Eire, who received the National Book Award for Nonfiction for this work. The narrative details the author's personal journey as a participant in Operation Peter Pan.
Author
Carlos Eire, a professor who obtained his PhD from Yale University in 1979, focuses his scholarship on the social, cultural, intellectual, and religious history of late medieval and early modern Europe. His research emphasizes the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, popular religious practices, and the historical perspectives on death. Among his significant publications are War Against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship From Erasmus to Calvin (1986), From Madrid to Purgatory: The Art and Craft of Dying in Sixteenth Century Spain (1995), and as co-author of Jews, Christians, Muslims: An Introduction to Monotheistic Religions (1997). With the release of Waiting for Snow in Havana (2003), Eire broadened his scope to include twentieth-century history and the Cuban Revolution, an effort that earned him the National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Reception
The city of Philadelphia, under Mayor John F. Street, selected Waiting for Snow in Havana as its One Book choice. The mayor praised the memoir for its vivid depiction of Carlos Eire’s exile amid the Cuban Revolution, describing it as both an intimate confession and a homage to a vanished homeland. The book chronicles Cuba’s evolution following Fidel Castro’s overthrow of President Fulgencio Batista in 1959, illustrating political oppression and exile that compelled many Cubans, including Eire, to relocate to the United States. This memoir stands as a powerful reflection on Cuban identity and endurance.