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Escape from Castro's Cuba: A Novel
Named a 2021 Top Thriller by Alta Journal
2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist in Action/Adventure Fiction
2021 Professional Achievement Award, Johns Hopkins University faculty
Finalist for the 2021 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year
In this visionary sequel to Castro’s Curveball , the former Washington Senators Minor League catcher has returned to Havana with a small role in a movie being filmed on location. Billy Bryan soon realizes that this place and his past remain as star-crossed as when he played winter ball in the Cuban capital decades before.
Against his better judgment, Billy becomes entangled in a scheme to spirit a top baseball prospect off the island. This pits him against his old friend Fidel Castro. Despite being in his final days, the dictator remains a dangerous adversary, as does the Cuban sports machine and the Mexican crime syndicates that now direct baseball talent toward the U.S. Major Leagues.
In Escape from Castro’s Cuba , Billy must once again navigate the crosscurrents of the so-called City of a place where the sunsets from the Hotel Nacional along the Malecón breakwater are as beautiful as ever, but where the alleyways in Old Havana still fan out, crooked and broken, like an old catcher’s fingers.
2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist in Action/Adventure Fiction
2021 Professional Achievement Award, Johns Hopkins University faculty
Finalist for the 2021 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year
In this visionary sequel to Castro’s Curveball , the former Washington Senators Minor League catcher has returned to Havana with a small role in a movie being filmed on location. Billy Bryan soon realizes that this place and his past remain as star-crossed as when he played winter ball in the Cuban capital decades before.
Against his better judgment, Billy becomes entangled in a scheme to spirit a top baseball prospect off the island. This pits him against his old friend Fidel Castro. Despite being in his final days, the dictator remains a dangerous adversary, as does the Cuban sports machine and the Mexican crime syndicates that now direct baseball talent toward the U.S. Major Leagues.
In Escape from Castro’s Cuba , Billy must once again navigate the crosscurrents of the so-called City of a place where the sunsets from the Hotel Nacional along the Malecón breakwater are as beautiful as ever, but where the alleyways in Old Havana still fan out, crooked and broken, like an old catcher’s fingers.
270 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2021
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30 people want to read
About the author
Tim Wendel
27 books69 followersTim Wendel is an award-winning novelist and journalist. He is the author of 16 books, including Rebel Falls: A Novel, Summer of '68: The Season When Baseball, and America, Changed Forever, and Castro's Curveball. His stories have appeared in Gargoyle and The Potomac Review, and his articles in The New York Times, Esquire, GQ, Washingtonian and USA Today. A longtime writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University, Tim teaches fiction and nonfiction writing. Tim has worked has worked on both coasts, covering everything from the Olympics to the America's Cup. More information and his blog can be found at www.timwendel.com."
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 30, 2021
"When it comes to Cuba, there are always surprises. Nothing goes as planned."
It's 2016, and Billy Bryan has returned to Cuba. Billy's playing days are far in the past, but his role in a movie has brought him back to the baseball diamonds of the country that is what a friend calls on of Billy's angels--a place where "you've learned something important, met someone special ... the places you can always picture when you close your eyes."
While in Cuba, a talented young shortstop named Gabriel Santos catches Billy's eye with his play on the diamond. When Billy's daughter, Eván, tracks Santos down and learns of his dream to play baseball in the United States, she convinces Billy that helping Santos will be the revenge they'd both like to get against the Cuban powers-that-be they believe are responsible for the death of the woman Billy loved (and Eván's mother) Malena Fonseca.
First, if you haven't read CASTRO'S CURVEBALL, the book for which ESCAPE FROM CASTRO'S CUBA is the sequel, here's the review of it that I wrote: https://thesisterhoodofbooks.com/2020.... If you don't want to click that link, just know that I thought it was a great book, and it was with some trepidation that I started the sequel. I always worry that the second book in any series won't live up to the first.
Thank goodness my fears were unfounded.
ESCAPE FROM CASTRO'S CUBA is completely engrossing with the great character development and well-done action scenes that I've come to expect from Tim Wendel. As was the case in CASTRO'S CURVEBALL, Cuba and its past are painted with as much depth as any of the people in the book, and Billy Bryan's love for the island is as evident as his sadness over what it has become.
And let's talk about those people in the book. My love for Billy Bryan is documented in my review of CASTRO'S CURVEBALL, and nothing in this new novel changes my feelings for him. I also adore Eván and Cassy, Billy's daughters. Their relationships with Billy--their bossiness and occasional exasperation mixed with obvious love and respect--made me miss my own dad.
Although more baseball scenes would have been nice because Tim Wendel writes baseball action so darn well (and because more baseball is always a good thing), I do appreciate how tight this story is. Wendel doesn't waste words, but he still manages to incorporate all the extra little things I appreciate in a book--things that will take a book from good to great for me: pretty turns of phrase where appropriate, thought-provoking insights, and clear settings that allow me to be stay centered and immersed in a story.
Finally, I don't know how a book becomes a movie, but I think this story would make a terrific one. Lots of action and atmosphere, wonderful characters, and beautiful settings ... I'd definitely go see this one on the big screen. Could someone make that happen, please?
Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me a copy of the e-book in exchange for my honest review.
It's 2016, and Billy Bryan has returned to Cuba. Billy's playing days are far in the past, but his role in a movie has brought him back to the baseball diamonds of the country that is what a friend calls on of Billy's angels--a place where "you've learned something important, met someone special ... the places you can always picture when you close your eyes."
While in Cuba, a talented young shortstop named Gabriel Santos catches Billy's eye with his play on the diamond. When Billy's daughter, Eván, tracks Santos down and learns of his dream to play baseball in the United States, she convinces Billy that helping Santos will be the revenge they'd both like to get against the Cuban powers-that-be they believe are responsible for the death of the woman Billy loved (and Eván's mother) Malena Fonseca.
First, if you haven't read CASTRO'S CURVEBALL, the book for which ESCAPE FROM CASTRO'S CUBA is the sequel, here's the review of it that I wrote: https://thesisterhoodofbooks.com/2020.... If you don't want to click that link, just know that I thought it was a great book, and it was with some trepidation that I started the sequel. I always worry that the second book in any series won't live up to the first.
Thank goodness my fears were unfounded.
ESCAPE FROM CASTRO'S CUBA is completely engrossing with the great character development and well-done action scenes that I've come to expect from Tim Wendel. As was the case in CASTRO'S CURVEBALL, Cuba and its past are painted with as much depth as any of the people in the book, and Billy Bryan's love for the island is as evident as his sadness over what it has become.
And let's talk about those people in the book. My love for Billy Bryan is documented in my review of CASTRO'S CURVEBALL, and nothing in this new novel changes my feelings for him. I also adore Eván and Cassy, Billy's daughters. Their relationships with Billy--their bossiness and occasional exasperation mixed with obvious love and respect--made me miss my own dad.
Although more baseball scenes would have been nice because Tim Wendel writes baseball action so darn well (and because more baseball is always a good thing), I do appreciate how tight this story is. Wendel doesn't waste words, but he still manages to incorporate all the extra little things I appreciate in a book--things that will take a book from good to great for me: pretty turns of phrase where appropriate, thought-provoking insights, and clear settings that allow me to be stay centered and immersed in a story.
Finally, I don't know how a book becomes a movie, but I think this story would make a terrific one. Lots of action and atmosphere, wonderful characters, and beautiful settings ... I'd definitely go see this one on the big screen. Could someone make that happen, please?
Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me a copy of the e-book in exchange for my honest review.
May 18, 2021
I read mostly nonfiction (including a lot of baseball books), but this book shows what can be done in fiction that cannot be as easily in nonfiction.
Tim weaves a fascinating tale that takes a lot of twists and turns that I did not expect but the surprises made the story a gripping one. Without giving away the plot, he brings back Billy Bryan, the former ballplayer who helped "discover" the ballplayer Fidel Castro, who he introduced in his book Castro's Curveball. That book was more about a person looking back at a very different chapter in his life, weaving the past with the present.
Escape From Castro's Curveball has some of that but it is also a thriller as Bryan goes underground to bring a young player to the United States. The biggest surprise to me was that getting him off the island is only half the story. Whenever I thought I had the story figured out, Wendel threw another curveball (pun intended) in there which kept the story moving.
Wendel does this while bringing back the characters from Castro's Curveball, sometimes in roles I did not expect. He is a excellent storyteller, with a style that makes me feel like I'm there. You can see how much he has learned about Cuba from his trips there, and his expertise in baseball also comes through, but in a way that does not exclude non-fans.
This review is by David, using my wife Barb's Amazon account. I have to disclose that I am a friend of the author but this is an honest review. I read this book in two days because I could not put it down.
Tim weaves a fascinating tale that takes a lot of twists and turns that I did not expect but the surprises made the story a gripping one. Without giving away the plot, he brings back Billy Bryan, the former ballplayer who helped "discover" the ballplayer Fidel Castro, who he introduced in his book Castro's Curveball. That book was more about a person looking back at a very different chapter in his life, weaving the past with the present.
Escape From Castro's Curveball has some of that but it is also a thriller as Bryan goes underground to bring a young player to the United States. The biggest surprise to me was that getting him off the island is only half the story. Whenever I thought I had the story figured out, Wendel threw another curveball (pun intended) in there which kept the story moving.
Wendel does this while bringing back the characters from Castro's Curveball, sometimes in roles I did not expect. He is a excellent storyteller, with a style that makes me feel like I'm there. You can see how much he has learned about Cuba from his trips there, and his expertise in baseball also comes through, but in a way that does not exclude non-fans.
This review is by David, using my wife Barb's Amazon account. I have to disclose that I am a friend of the author but this is an honest review. I read this book in two days because I could not put it down.
March 10, 2021
Good fiction transports you and Tim Wendel sure does that in Escape from Castro's Cuba. Even if you haven't read Castro's Cuba, which introduced the world to Billy Bryan, the reader feels like they haven't missed a thing. The scene used to launch the story is the book's first surprise, and they keep on coming, driving this reader to not put the book down. There's an underlining tension that keeps the pages turning till the very end. Highly recommended for lovers of baseball, political intrigue, thrillers and family drama.
August 24, 2021
Decent second novel by Tim Wendell on baseball in Cuba and Fidel Castro plays a big role in both books. The storyline was hard to follow for me, but I liked the character development, especially for Castro. Not the best baseball novel I have read.but enough redeem!ing qualities to keep my interest.
August 25, 2021
A really good yarn, with some provocative plot twists, interesting characters, strong dialogue. Makes me want to see Old Havana.
May 17, 2022
Wendel knows Cuba and knows baseball. The plot was clever and takes on a timely issue that gets little attention. Great read!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews