Love and Ghost Letters

by Chantel Acevedo

On the outside, Josefina Navarro’s life seems fortunate enough—she lives with her father and her nursemaid, Regla, who raises her after the death of her mother in a luxurious home in Vedado, one of Cuba’s wealthiest districts. She attends society dances and is courted by all of Havana’s elite young bachelors. Enchanted by the rituals of her nursemaid, Josefina learns about the profound mysticism inherent in even the most mundane affairs. Though she is pampered, Josefina feels that her life is without passion or excitement. Her father, Sergeant Antonio Navarro, a Spaniard by birth, is a stern and demanding man whose past is a tightly kept secret.
When she meets and marries Lorenzo Concepción, a poor, reckless young man, the sergeant tells her, “So, you have chosen him…and you will be hungry and miserable all your life. ” The couple moves to El Cotorro, a poverty-stricken town that is far removed from the Vedado plazas and carefully tended gardens Josefina knew. Lorenzo begins to leave her for months at a time, “looking for work,” but in reality, womanizing and carousing all over the island. Even after the birth of two healthy children, Josefina is not happy. This is not the life she had envisioned.
During a political maelstrom, history brings the sergeant to El Cotorro to quell a riot, where he is attacked and presumed dead. But perception is reality on an island in which darkness and light commingle, and magic and truth are one in the same.
When Josefina begins receiving letters from her father, she believes that what she holds are heaven’s missives, ghost letters. Through the letters, Josefina comes to know her father intimately, as a ghost and guardian, as he reveals the truth about his life. In the act of writing and reading, she has found a love to fill the empty places in her heart.
Set in Cuba and Miami, covering nearly fifty years of the island’s history, LOVE AND GHOST LETTERS unfolds the lives of the Navarro-Concepción families in the patterns and permutations of memory, and conjures a Cuban setting that evokes mysticism and magic.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Latinx

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

Called "a master storyteller" by Kirkus Reviews, Chantel Acevedo is the author of  Love and Ghost Letters, A Falling Star, The Distant Marvels, which was a finalist for the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and most recently, The Living Infinite, hailed by Booklist as a "vivid and enthralling tale of love and redemption." Her essays have appeared in Vogue and Real Simple, among others. THE MUSE SQUAD: THE CASSANDRA CURSE, is a new middle grade series forthcoming from Balzer + Bray. She is a Professor of English at the University of Miami, where she directs in the MFA program.

Reviews

[Book Concierge · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*** rounded up to 4****

Acevedo gives us a wonderful exploration of Cuba from 1933 to 1969, focusing on the life of Josefina, the only daughter of a police sergeant who lives a life of privilege until she meets and marries a poor dockhand, Lorenzo Concepcion.

Josefina is strong-willed at times, and passive at others. She takes charge when defying her father, but acquiesces to the role her husband demands of her. Her steadfast champion is her old nursemaid, Regla, who offers advice and a charm or two to help the girl she raised and loved. At one point in the story, just about at the end of her rope, Josefina asks Regla for a specific spell. My F2F book club had quite the discussion about that episode, as we were fully expecting a different outcome.

Over the course of the novel Acevedo explores love in all its many forms: passionate, chaste and unrequited, within marriage or outside of it, as a teenager, during old age, parental and among friends. The men come across as selfish idiots, the women are frequently long-suffering and passive.

The upheaval within the relationships is contrasted nicely against the revolutions and political changes in the country during this time frame.

[liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Think one generation of 100 Years of Solitude, in Cuba during the Revolution. BUT without being derivative; it wasn't until just now that the Garcia-Marquez occurred to me. It follows the daughter of a Spanish-born seargent who marries down. Really good and interesting.

Camila noted the straightening of the sergeant's back, his hands coming down to hang, defeated, at his sides. Camila stood then and said, "You were supposed to have died, long ago?"
I am alive, nina," he said, and pressed his hand to her cheek. "Alive, as you can see."
"No one stays dead anymore," Camila said and she walked over to where Lorenzo was and took her seat by his side once again.

[Raquel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely, moving book about Cuba before and during the Cuban Revolution. At its heart, it is about the relationship between a father and daughter. The Sergeant was my favorite character, and I found myself wishing there were more sections from his point of view.

The Sergeant's only daughter, Josefina, marries a ne'er-do-well named Lorenzo against her father's wishes. They move to a rural town, have two children, and live in poverty due to Lorenzo's sporadic jobs and constant philandering. Meanwhile, the Sergeant is caught up in a riot when he travels to Josefina's town to find her, and he is presumed dead. Josefina is devastated that she and her father weren't able to reconcile before his death, so when she begins receiving letters from him, she assumes it is his ghost watching over her.

The book was pretty dark, but there were glimmers of hope throughout.

[Laura Vidueira · Rating 5 out of 5]

M. Acevedo is a truly gifted writer who welcomes you to walk into each character's world. You are transported to preCastro Cuba from page 1. Anyone can enjoy this well-crafted novel, but if you happen to be Cuban or Cuban American-- you must read this beautiful novel.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks, Laura, for this one. It revealed my ignorance of cuban history, but was unique and, at times, very moving.

[Ashlight Grayson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story hit really close to home. My father is Cuban and being able to explore Cuba's past through this story was amazing. The story follows the family saga of the Concepción family over many decades. Josefina is the main character throughout the story with a focus on her strained yet loving relationship with her father. Josefina makes decisions in her life that lead her into a complicated marriage, a familial relationship that crosses oceans and decades, and infidelities. All of this is in synchrony with the social, economic and political struggles that Cuba undergoes over the years that indirectly affect her and those she loves. This is a story that is delightful, dark, sad, and also hopeful. There are parts of the story that I'm sure will resonate with a lot of Cuban people like it did with me when they read it. Acevedo really knows how to make you feel and sympathize for these characters. They are all flawed and feel human and at the same time reflect the historical experiences of the Cuban people. I am looking forward to reading more wonderful books by Chantel Acevedo.

[Wendy Johansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was at first put off by the choppy writing style, but eventually appreciated it as perhaps a reflection of the Cuban culture and history. This particular family's upheavals reflected their country's various political and cultural upheavals. For me it was quite educational, though in the end I felt so sorry for all the troubled family members.

[Claudia Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

After taking a writing workshop with this author I was longing to read this book. I'm so happy I did. I loved it!

[Mary M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Really enjoyed reading it!

[S.W. Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book utilized an omniscient 3rd person narrator to tell the story of a Cuban family's struggles from 1933-1959 and also a brief epilogue ("years later"). There are also embedded letters that reveal much of the father's backstory. The narrator came off as genuinely Cuban. Phrases like "Wednesday boy" and "never fifteen" added authenticity. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

8/10/2004

[Tiffany Muehlhausen · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING !!!!

[Mary Dansak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book.

[Tiffany Mathews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Painful to read the lack of awareness of pain. The tone felt true to the story and simultaneously heartbreaking.

[N · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cliched overdone story about the immigrant experience, but at least its ending is bleak.

[Carrie]

The boy in this novel, Lalo, reminds me very much of boys I went to school with in Miami.