British-born Maggie Barrington has become a very successful New York lawyer. When her marriage breaks up, she goes to Cuba, ostensibly on business but secretly in search of her cantankerous Marxist concert pianist father who decamped to Havana when she was a child and whom she has cut out of her life.When she finally tracks him down, she is pitched into a series of life-changing dramas that entangle her not only with her new-found family but also in the shadowy life of Cuba itself. She crosses barriers that in the past would have been unthinkable and that turn her into someone forced to try to flee the island to escape justice.As the hurricane season whips through Havana, Maggie discovers a buried part of her old self.“What a piece of storytelling... Strong passions, terrific characters...fascinating Cuba, a hurricane that made me feel that I was in the thick of it...the perfectly accomplished full circle of it all!”– Hilary Norman, bestselling novelist“I was riveted... Great story, great characters, great sense of place...tension superbly maintained throughout!”– Timothy West, actor
Guy Slater is a writer, theatre and TV director, and producer of many long-running TV drama series, including Miss Marple, starring Joan Hickson, and Love Hurts,starring Zoe Wanamaker and Adam Faith. He founded and ran the Horseshoe Theatre Company at the Haymarket Theatre in Basingstoke and on tour, and has written over twenty TV dramas, seven radio dramas, four stage plays and has published five books. He knows Cuba – the setting for Hurricane Maggie – well, having first visited it when his father was the British Ambassador in Havana.
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10 reviews
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Hurricane Maggie is an exciting and original novel which held my interest right to the last full stop.It is the fascinating story of a strong successful woman trying to make sense of her troubled life and ending up causing chaos and even death.
It is set on the still emerging island of Cuba which together with an awesomely powerful hurricane features as the backdrop to the unfolding drama The writer has personal knowledge and great affection for the island which adds to the feeling of authenticity ,and the protagonists are so lovingly drawn and engaging I found myself spellbound and could hardly put the book down until the last page was read.
Read it . It’s a cracker!
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A most enjoyable, engaging and thought provoking read. Cuba is a place that exerts great fascination for cultural and political reasons. The writer’s knowledge of and affection for the island informs detailed and atmospheric descriptions allowing the reader to conjure dusty white washed images, hear the voices and feel the rising heat.
Cuba also fascinates because of its revolution and heroic attempt to create a truly Marxist society only miles off shore of the biggest capitalist nation on the globe. The sense of different vales comes over in incidental details, for example the taxi driver has to get to his next shift as a practicing doctor or the descriptions of Cuban hospitals.
The story is told in the first person by the principal character, Maggie. Her conflict with her father Bernard Harris is the heart of the book. I enjoy portrayals of cantankerous recalcitrant old bastards and he is the real thing. The tensions between him and Maggie encapsulates convincingly both personal and ideological conflicts. The book succeeds on several levels. It drives along at a good pace intriguing and entertaining. It convinces and transports. It engages and asks questions. I recommend it highly.
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