Cuba: The Land Of Miracles

For a growing number of British holidaymakers, Cuba is a Caribbean paradise, but it is also a land of cutbacks and economic instability. Stephen Smith comes to live on the island, and his search for the real Cuba inevitably becomes a search for Fidel Castro too. Before meeting his quarry, Smith travels extensively through the 'land of miracles' in an old American automobile. His highly-personalised account features a bloody initiation into a voodoo- like cult, dining on giant rat, and checking into the Love Hotel. And he goes on manoeuvres in the Everglades with armed, but not especially competent, Cuban exiles dreaming of a second Bay of Pigs. With disarming wit and considerable insight, Stephen Smith investigates a country where communism and voodoo coexist, and where the influence of its leader of forty years continues to throw a long shadow.

Entertaining ... the best guide to this beautiful, bedevilled island. Unfailingly well written, Fascinating ... genuinely brilliant, Essential reading, {Stephen Smith ) is the best sort of reporter; detached, ironic, yet well-versed on the terrain he's exploring ... a compelling portrait of a society on the verge of an ideological breakdown

Born the same year as the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, Channel 4 News reporter Stephen Smith has been fascinated by the island since he first heard the hijackers' slogan 'Fly me to Havana!' He is a regular contributor to the LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS and other newspapers.