Achy Obejas and Robert Arellano

Two new novels by Achy Obejas (Ruins) and Robert Arellano (Havana Lunar) are set in Cuba.

In Ruins, a true believer is faced with a choice between love for his family and the Cuban Revolution. Obejas is the author of the novel Days of Awe; she translated into Spanish Junot Diaz' award-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. She is currently Writer in Residence at DePaul University in Chicago.

In Robert Arellano's hypnotic noir novel, a young doctor, the teenage prostitute he befriends, and her pimp and his bodyguards are caught in a violent chain reaction that plunges them into the catacombs of Havana's criminal underworld. Robert Arellano is the author of two other novels, Fast Eddie: King of the Bees and Don Dimaio of La Plata.

Recorded On: Monday, March 23, 2009