Travel to Cuba in the company of its finest writers and gain an understanding of its remarkable mystique. The twenty-one stories in this collection -- some of which appear in English for the first time -- will take you on an odyssey through the country's rich past to its dynamic present, where it is poised at the brink of immense change. Arranged by the areas of Cuba they illuminate, these stories offer up a rich literary banquet. Contributors include Luis Aguilar León, María Eugenia Alegría Nuñez, Uva de Aragón, Reinaldo Arenas, Richard Blanco, Lino Novás Calvo, Calvert Casey, Alfonso Hernández Catá, Josefina de Diego, Abilio Estévez, Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Cristina Garcia, Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, José Lezama Lima, Pablo Medina, Ana Menéndez, Ernesto Mestre, Mayra Montero, Achy Obejas, Senel Paz, Antonio José Ponte, and Zoé Valdés.