The Cuban mile

the long version

The Cuban Mile is a study of the psychology of risk and desire. This first novel recounts the increasingly anxious adventure of two men emigrating from Cuba across the Straits of Florida on a stolen military raft. Told from the perspective of a twenty-year-old Cuban artist who has lived through the U.S. embargo and the fall of the USSR, this poignant tale depicts in slow deliberate detail the psychological and physical disintegration of its characters trapped under the burning Caribbean sun. As they move farther away from the coastline, the thoughts of the young refugee move with it as he meditates on Marxism, capitalism, art, and the movie stars on his way toward the "land of opportunity."