Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter

by Ada Ferrer

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of An American History comes a heartbreaking yet redemptive memoir about migration, separation, and the love of one family forcing its way through the fissures of history.

In 1963, four years after Fidel Castro came to power, Ada Ferrer’s mother made the agonizing decision to flee Cuba with her infant daughter, Ada, and to leave behind her nine-year-old son, Poly. That moment was but a ripple in a much larger story of a world historical revolution. Yet, in another more intimate family history, that choice was a crossroads, ultimately inseparable from who and what they all became.

In this beautiful memoir, Ferrer masterfully shifts between her roles as historian and family member, weaving a multigenerational tale that reaches into the past to understand the circumstances and choices that led to the present. We see key historical events through the eyes of the the grandmother who raised Poly after Ada’s departure, a Black woman born a year after the end of slavery in Cuba; Ada’s parents, forced to invent themselves anew in a foreign land; and two brothers left behind—Poly and another, once-secret brother named Juan José, both of whose lives were marked irrevocably by revolution and family separation. Moving between Cuba and the United States and then back again, the book unpacks the experience and emotion of migration, in the moment of separation and over the long-term, for those who left and those who stayed.

Using a treasure trove of letters written across the gulf of family separation and found after the death of Ada’s parents, as well as government documents acquired through Freedom of Information Act requests, Ferrer offers us a profound reflection on belonging, memory, and the lasting imprint of history.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Biography Memoir, Politics, Audiobook

384 pages, Hardcover

Published May 19, 2026

About the author

Ada Ferrer is Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University, where she has taught since 1995. She is the author of Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868–1898, which won the 2000 Berkshire Book Prize for the best first book by a woman in any field of history, and Freedom’s Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution, which won the Frederick Douglass Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University, as well as multiple prizes from the American Historical Association. Born in Cuba and raised in the US, she has been traveling to and conducting research on the island regularly since 1990.

Reviews

[Bonnie G.]

A beautiful and fascinating tale of Cuba, America, and one family. Ferrer is an historian, a Pulitzer-winning one, but she is also a daughter, sister, and mother. She proves that a scrupulous relation of history can still have pathos and joy. This is also a celebration of immigration and immigrants. It was a beautiful thing.

[Ima]

LOVED LOVED LOVED this book.
It an honest reflection of the heart- wrenching choices made when families separate to immigrate to a new country. The new place is never perfect, the old place had part of a life that cannot be transplanted and always , always there is collateral hurt and damage that cannot be undone. The immigrant story is complex. Ana Ferrer reveals how you can leave a country, a culture, a family but IT never leaves you. Her opportunities and successes are tempered by bittersweet realizations that chance and random choices played pivotal, critically important roles in the trajectory that is her life. She honors her family in keeping their histories documented and alive. The families’ past is integrated in her present and is bequeathed to her future decedents and to us in this BEAUTIFUL memoir

[vanessa]

I’ve seriously had a book hangover after this memoir of immigration and family separation. I cried multiple times listening to this on audio. Ferrer beautifully and emotionally captures what it’s like to leave your country at a young age (for her: 10 months old, for me 7 years old); you forget who you were before, the family you left without your knowledge, a part of your identity will always be gone. She weaves her Cuban family story exploring family members left behind, including siblings (devastating) and trying to reunite. Families are complex, personalities clash, motivations are fuzzy, and ultimately our parents and grandparents pass and we’re left yes with a better life, but one that’s hard sometimes in ways that it will never be for fully planted Americans here in the U.S. I was so sad but felt so seen reading this book.

“I would never know the grandmother in all my mother’s stories. The grandmother she insisted loved me so much. Migration can sever so much.”

“The program started and immediately our living room was awash in scenes of Havana. At one time my parents’ eyes might’ve moistened at the images but they didn’t. I was riveted, almost holding my breath, and then I started to tear up. My parents stared at me unbelieving. They weren’t crying, why was I? And I recall with absolute certainty what I said in response: “Because I was born there but I can’t remember it.””

[Zoe Zeid]

Round up to 4.5 stars. A wonderful memoir about a family who went through so much in Cuba and the United States. I don’t know much about Cuba during the Castro era, so I learned a lot. The book was very well-researched and I enjoyed all of the letters that were included. I highly recommend the audiobook.

[Jeanette]

This is honest, historial non-fiction upon the author's extended family (kin both sides and through 4 levels of generation). She is an historian and writes exactly as an historian. This despite the emotions and leftover tangents for the reality of sequences that have occurred over more than 70 years of time. She accomplished a difficult, difficult task supremely well. Then why only 3 stars? Because it is so specific and so detailed to onus and association that the dozens and dozens of individuals being defined (by paper trails of every authoritative or governmental issue)- that it reads dry.

Yet, she more than half a dozen times returns to the emotions of guilt she owns for being the child taken "with". (Yes, I am Chicago but do know you are not supposed to end a sentence with a proposition.) So much does she retain her own guilt and also that of her mother too? Well, that is what it is but it did not need to be so emphasized as if that was unusual. Or that Poly's fate, having a different father and no permission from him would in the long run be much different. It would not have. That piecemeal movement is exactly how most families have emigrated from their homelands, and not at all just Cubans. In fact, Cubans in ALL eras have had it much easier than many, many others from a distance or other region. And her constant complaining about not being able to go home to visit kin like all her neighbors from other Carib locations? More than half the people I grew up with NEVER saw their parents or grandparents again. This was true of all my Sicilians and true for a 9 year separation between my German grandfather and grandmother during the early 1930's. She got accepted in 1933 and he was here from the mid 1920's. She was also sent back once for asthma and being underweight. There ARE rules. Always were too. Visiting back was not only nearly impossible but way too costly to be even considered. Only the Polish, Mexicans or the Lithuanians have in THIS century been able to afford or secure safety in legal up and back one more time fashion. As late as the 1990's I know people who could not get back once they left to "visit".

Well, it wasn't an easy read because of the dryness quotient to tell, tell, tell and source material cited on each detail. But it was at least 3.5 stars at points. I LOVED her grandma Rita's story. She sure was a pistol. But you have to understand that these are many, many people in her bloodline before you take this on. The kind with 45 first cousins and 23 or 27 uncles and aunts. Not at all like a family unit of norm in any USA scenario today. With a greater than 6 per woman average of offspring- more than Somalia. Her one grandfather alone had 17 kids from3 or 4 "wives" that were recognized for sure.

I'm a bad audience for books like these because it is way, way harder to get citizenship for most European or South American immigrants than it is for Cubans in any era. It's even easier than for Mexican nationals. But it can be done within 3 years or so. So I very much admire her parents and many others who took the route legally and with high held heads all the way. So I have huge memory of comparisons. And yet I enjoyed her English/Spanish dual abilities to a 4.5 star level. That was an essential key to all the moves in location and in upward economics. Using BOTh in excellence and practice.

This will most probably be more interesting to read for those who didn't live through these crisis times or were not aware and adult during the boat lifts. Photos are in all cases at least 4.5 stars despite some of them being blurry.

[Abby]

This is a special book. The author writes of her family’s personal experience with immigration from Cuba. She also teaches you so much about the country of Cuba-its beauty and its disturbing history. She tells the good and bad of her family and their unique experiences. Well researched and told with love. I hope to see this author speak at a book festival in my town next month. Recommend.

[DaveNelda Eitreim]

This is a moving memoir of a Cuban immigrant daughter. She told their life stories warts and all. The history of Cuba Is woven into their family's history.

[Kristine]

This is one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking books I have ever read. This author’s family left Cuba when she was a baby as political refugees in the US when Castro Came to power. She ended up studying Cuban history, becoming a proud US citizen and history professor, and recently wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning history on Cuba.

This is also a history of the country, told through her family history and the older half brother they left behind. I currently have twin boys the age of little Polito when they left him behind. (Thus my comments on IG of sobbing many times halfway through the book.)

Family separation of all kinds is tragedy, and it is not only communist revolutions that cause it. The hubris and egos of men destroying lives in their wake. My heart aches. Also: the author is brilliant w wordcraft. 100/10 stars.

PS she reads the audiobook. Making it even more personal.

[Eliza]

I listened to the audiobook. Ferrer’s family immigration story is both moving and profound. She does a superb job of situating her family’s experience of immigrating from Cuba within the larger historical context. She’s a fantastic reader.

[Nic]

I never rate a memoir less than 4 but this was a rough one to stay in. Slow going

[patricia j patane]

Loved this book. I remember a visit with my grandmother. It was spur of the moment while driving back from the east coast , coming back from college. My grandmother brought out her saved photos and memorabilia of her past. My great grandmother had come here from Germany as an indentured servant at the age of 17. Twice she had taken her daughter back to Germany to visit family but the connection had been lost during the war and afterwards the Cold War and the iron curtain separating them forever.
This was such a wonderful book about the lives of families , decisions that are made, routes in life that forever make changes that can’t be reversed but keep us always wondering what if I did things differently.

[Alex]

Now this…this was a memoir! 100/10 stars. One of the my favorite parts of “Cuba: An American History” was the inclusion of Ada’s stories from her family. When I found out she was writing a memoir, I was thrilled! You truly feel every emotion with this one. A complicated tale, the evolution of seeing your parents as heroes then as people and how decisions can impact lives. Ada is a terrific author, this was well organized and impactful. A truly great memoir leaves you a little sad you didn’t get to learn more about people who didn’t make history, which is exactly how I feel. I’d recommend reading her previous work before this one so you can understand the historical context.

[Jane]

Got 100 pages in but it just didn’t draw me in. I tried. Really I did. I love memoirs and excitedly started this one, especially with the abundance of glowing reviews, but I kept forcing myself to read it, rather than yearning to do so.

[Cheryl]

Ada Ferrar has an amazing life story. She was born in Cuba in 1962 and immigrated to the US with her mother in 1963 when she was 10 months old. Her father had immigrated to the U.S ahead of them. She has lived an incredible life, despite her very humble beginnings. Her immigrant parents struggled a great deal financially, yet she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College, a Master’s degree from University of Texas at Austin and a PhD from University of Michigan. She is currently a Professor of History and Latin American Studies at Princeton University. She is truly an inspiration.

In 1959 Fidel Castro seized control of Cuba. It quickly became apparent that the Cuban people had gone from bad situation (under Batista) to much worse. When Ada Ferrer’s mom decided to follow her husband to Miami in 1963 (he had gone ahead to Miami in 1962 while she was pregnant with Ada), she wanted to take her infant daughter Ada and her son Poly (from her first marriage) who was 9 years old at the time. Her ex-husband absolutely refused to allow her to take his son Poly, so he remained in Cuba with his grandmother while Ada went to the US with her mom. Many who left Cuba were convinced they would return to their families in time after Fidel Castro was no longer in power. Little did they know that Castro would remain in power for almost 50 years.

I LOVED this book. The family relationships and the heartaches that Ada Ferrer and her family endured after she and her parents left Cuba really tugged at my heart.

This is a memoir that illustrates the love of family, the heartache that family separation can cause, dealing with mental illness among family members, sibling resentment, incredible achievement, failure, frustration, and love for one’s home country, even though the living conditions in that country are extremely poor.

Towards the end of the book, Ada Ferrar writes about her half-brother Juan Jose’s daughter leaving Cuba for the US in 2024. “Amalia made the excruciating decision that so many from around the world feel forced to make every day: to leave the people they love most in the world and launch themselves into a future that is as uncertain as the one back home feels hopeless.”

This is the second book I’ve read by Ada Ferrer. The first was “Cuba: An American History” which won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2022. If you want to understand how communists can manipulate the public and take over a country, I highly recommend this book as well.

[Atlas]

Thank you to Scribner Books for the gifted ARC of Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter by Ada Ferrer.

This one hit in a quiet but heavy way. It’s not loud or dramatic in the typical sense, but the emotional weight just kind of… sits with you. The core of the story, that impossible choice between children, sets the tone for everything that follows, and honestly, it’s hard to shake.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ferrer weaves together history, memory, and identity in a way that feels really intimate, especially when the focus is on Poly. Those sections felt the most alive to me, like the emotional anchor of the whole memoir. There’s also this underlying tension of trying to piece together a past that isn’t fully accessible, which adds a layer of uncertainty that I actually found pretty compelling, even if it didn’t always land perfectly.

What I Loved
• The emotional core of the story, especially the impossible choice that drives everything
• Poly’s storyline, which felt the most vivid and engaging
• The exploration of identity between Cuba and the United States
• The way history and personal narrative were woven together
• The overall sense of humanity and compassion throughout

What Didn’t Work for Me
• Some sections felt more speculative, which made it harder to stay fully invested
• The narrative pacing dipped a bit when moving away from Poly’s perspective
• A few moments felt slightly distant, likely due to gaps in historical record

Overall, this felt like a thoughtful and layered memoir about family, separation, and the stories we inherit and try to understand. It’s one of those books that quietly lingers after you finish, especially in the questions it raises about truth, memory, and belonging.

[Brendan (History Nerds United)]

At the heart of Keeper of My Kin by Ada Ferrer is an impossible choice. Do you leave a child behind to save the other? In this case, the author's mother took her out of Cuba to live in America, but had to leave behind her son, Poly, whose father would not let the boy leave Cuba. Since the author had a different father who already left the island, Ferrer's mother had a choice to make. She left Cuba.

This kicks off Ferrer's memoir and, for good or bad, the real crux of the story relies on how Poly grows up and reunites with the family. The story is strongest with Poly at the center, although Ferrer also touches on other aspects of being Cuban in America while also having family back behind Castro's theoretical wall.

Ferrer won the Pulitzer Prize for her previous work on Cuban history, and there is not a letdown in this one. I will say that the seams of the story show at times. She is writing about people who she didn't know or doesn't have records for. These sections require some conjecture, and I did find myself less invested. However, Poly is never gone from the narrative long and the push and pulls of his story make this one a fascinating read.

(This book was provided as an advanced reader copy by NetGalley and Scribner Books.)

[Darcia Helle]

KEEPER OF MY KIN is centered around the author’s mother and the son she left behind in Cuba.

This is a melancholy look at what happens when a family is split apart because of immigration restrictions. My heart broke for Poly, the older brother left behind to languish under Castro’s rule, while his mother and especially his sister thrived in their new country. I’m not sure Poly’s resentment and heartbreak was ever properly understood or explored, but this wasn’t my story to tell.

As a mother, I can’t imagine being faced with the decision to either stay with both my children in a country being torn apart, or to flee with only one child. I have immense empathy for any parent who has endured similar circumstances.

I alternated between my print copy and the audiobook, which is narrated by the author.

*Thanks to Scribner Books for the free hardcover, and to Simon Audio for the free audiobook download!*

[Lauren Schramm]

This story stayed with me for weeks after I finished reading it. I felt like Ada was right there telling me firsthand all of her family secrets and the truth of how difficult it was for her family to leave Cuba and be separated. Every immigrant story is painful and I don't think they should be compared but rather appreciated and heard in their own light. Perhaps this story touched me so deeply because my grandmother was born in Camaguey and came to the US in 1955 after falling in love and marrying an American. Even though she was lucky to get out before the Revolution, it was still a struggle to see her country change so drastically and never be able to return. I saw so many similarities to my family in Adas story. It was a true gift to read this book and I appreciate the beautiful way in which Ada shared her deepest feelings in an honest and heartfelt manner. Thank you for writing this beautiful memoir. The storytelling is exquisite and an inspiration.

[Karen]

Keeper oif My Kin is a heartbreaking account of a divorced mother of two who has an opportunity to leave Cuba during the 60s but whose ex won't agree to allowing her to get a visa for their son. Mom is conflicted and sees an opportunity to flee with both her son and daughter but in the last moments fears the consequences for her and her two children if she is caught. In the end she decides to take the safe route for her daughter"s sake and leaves Cuba without her son's knowledge who is left under the care of his loving grandmother and aunt. But Poly is emotionally destroyed by the abandonment of his mother which keeps him on a collision course with his tragic fate.

This family endures one misstep after another due to a father"s vindictive refusal to sign visa papers to allow for a better future for his son.

The description of life under communism in Cuba is impossible for Americans to believe.

[Anne-Marie McCartan]

For anyone interested in Fidel Castor's revolution and its aftermath on the good people of Cuba, this book is a worthwhile read. Ada Ferrer was only 10 months old when her mother fled to the US to join her Cuban husband in the US, leaving behind a nine-year old son who she didn't reunite with until he was well into adulthood. The author went on to become a renowned scholar of the Cuban-American historical relationship and through the story of her own family, brings to life this fraught history. It's a gentle book with many appealing characters but once again, such a detailed memoir about these individuals who I don't know is only useful as a vehicle for telling the story of Cuban immigrants to America and their inextricable bond to their home country.

[Christy-JC Carter]

A friend from my book club recommended this to us, and I'm so glad I listened. It took a while to become available from the library; I'm encouraged that others are interested also. Ferrer tells the story of her family -- especially her parents and half-brother -- with skill and compassion. While I found the early chapters a bit slow, it quickly picked up and I didn't want to stop. She raises a number of important questions about immigration, family dynamics, mental health, and the legacies of devastating choices. All of that would be good for group discussion. I was also impressed - and inspired - by her work as an academic professional historian researching and writing her own family's history. I'd like to read or listen to her prize-winning history of Cuba soon.

[Todd]

This is a big story of a family separated in Cuba and the United States once Fidel Castro took power in 1959. Tensions have reduced enough to allow for some visitation, and Ferrer took advantage of that to dig further in the archives for traces of her family.

Apart from the obvious fleshing out of the immigrant story, there's the questions of what really happened in the past that is so important in telling this story. The immigration story may be several generations ago for a lot of Americans, but the stories of what really happened is universal.

Ferrer has told her family's story with loving honesty and is a timely reminder of their humanity.

[anna tarrant]

It could have been my story

I have read several books with the topic of Cuba, the revolution, immigration or being a refugee.
I am that person . This book hit home in such a profound way of what it means to leave ypir country, your home , your culture! How desperate one can feel to assimilate or not. And it is with you a lifetime and passed on to ourchildren by choices we have made and views we take on. Ada Ferrer dis this so beautifully human I sit and cry for all those feelings and ideas. For loss and strength. For hope that we as a country do a better job to those that are cught in the hell of loosing ones identity.

[Ken Kamer]

Interesting read about the immigrant experience, especially as it applies to Cuba. I really came to feel tremendous empathy for these people who had to leave their loved ones to try to find a freer life for themselves and their children. It puts a real face of real people on the immigrant story. I felt there was perhaps too many relatives- cousins and aunts and more cousins- that kind of made some tedious reading, but the overall emotion of leaving a son behind remains throughout the book. It makes me hope more than ever that we change our policies toward Cuba and let these people enjoy the presence of their loved ones while they can.

[Tracey]

I don't like rating memoirs but because I'm trying to rate and review more so I remember here we are.

There was a certain aspect of the story that gave me a bad vibe, and I felt like the author tried to avoid it but I still got the sense one of her siblings was made into an other, and all the fault was put on them. I understand that from what we're told but as someone who has had seen this done to someone I don't think she understood what her brother went through. Or at least she doesn't really say.

[Melissa Allen]

Living in Florida - I have lots of friends who are Cuban with similar stories of how their families made America their home. One of my sorority sisters was even part of the program where families sent their children first & they lived with another family in America until the parents could make it over. Crazy stories - but truly fascinating!

My dad & my nephew have both visited Cuba during that short time people were allowed to go. They both tell me it's like going back in time. Very old cars everywhere.

I really enjoyed this book.

[Madison ✨ (mad.lyreading)]

Keeper of My Kin is a beautiful memoir by the child of an immigrant writing about her family's experience leaving Cuba and the impact it had on her family. In particular, Ferrer's mother had a son from a prior marriage who she had to leave behind due to his father remaining in Cuba. Ferrer is able to discuss so much of the experiences that were not hers due to the collection of letters left behind. This was a heartbreaking memoir, and I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to Scribner and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Emily]

An evocative journey into the author's family history, offering a glimpse into the Cuban immigrant experience of the 1960s. Through intimate storytelling, the author pulls back the curtain on a pivotal era—capturing the intense desperation to escape a repressive regime and exploring how that profound upheaval shaped the identities and choices of the generations that followed.

Striking contrast between Poly and Juan Jose. It leaves the audience pondering the fragile nature of hope. When there's no hope, there's no disappointment. Life could have turned out differently, perhaps better.

[Susan McBeth (Adventures by the Book)]

Keeper of My Kin is an intimate and searching memoir in which Pulitzer Prize winning author Ada Ferrer turns her historian’s eye inward, examining her own family’s Cuban story with honesty and tenderness. Rather than simply recounting the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, Ferrer focuses on what lingers—fractured families, unanswered questions, and the quiet ache of separation that stretches across generations.

Through letters, memory, and historical context, she captures both the heartbreak of exile and the enduring pull of kinship. The result is a memoir that feels deeply personal yet widely resonant, especially in a country like the United States shaped by immigration and reinvention. Timely, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Keeper of My Kin is a powerful reminder that history lives not only in archives, but in the bonds we struggle to preserve across borders.

[Theresa D.]

Memoir That Reads Like a Novel

My favorite genre is historical fiction. When I saw Dr. Ferrer on PBS, I was intrigued by her discussion about this book. The book intertwines her life story with the history of Cuba. Both her story and the subtext of the Cuban revolution hooked wanting to know what happens next. Moreover, she is an excellent writer sharing her experiences and trying to make sense out her family narrative. I found quite relatable. I highly recommend this book.