Suárez’ novel is a whimsical account of a turbulent year. In 1993, following the collapse of the USSR, Cuba is cut off from Soviet subsidies. The country is plunged into extreme poverty. People dream of escape, or madcap get-rich schemes which have no chance of coming to fruition. Suárez’s protagonist, Lucia, (a pseudonym, we are told, as are all the names in the book), is told by her former maths professor, Euclid, that a document exists proving the telephone was invented in Cuba, by an Italian scientist-inventor called Antonio Meucci. Euclid has fallen on hard times and convinces Lucia, who is also his former lover, that if they can find the document it will transform their fortunes. Her search leads her to Angel, (who will be her future husband), a novelist, Leandro, and an Italian woman, Barbara, all of whom have their own reasons for wanting the document, and all of whom might potentially already have it in their possession. Inevitably this scheme starts to collapse under the weight not so much of its unlikeliness, but because of the tangled personal web that is being woven, seemingly by the document itself. People fall in and out of love, and this is what changes lives, rather than any kind of deus ex machina. Suárez' novel is breezy and readable, offering a glimpse of the joys of Havana and the way in which these pleasures are sustained, no matter the economic situation. It is also perhaps notable for the absence of any political commentary, something which is usually seen as de rigeur in a novel from the socialist caiman island.
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