The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love

(Paperback)

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Description

An extraordinary Pulitzer Prize winning novel about mambo, loss, and love WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION In 1949 two young Cuban musicians, brothers Cesar and Nestor, leave Havana for New York. By day they work hard, by night they are the Mambo Kings- packing out clubs, dance halls and theatres with their sensuous, pulsing Latin music. This is the captivating story of charming, vivacious womanizer Cesar and quiet, romantic Nestor - still nursing an unrequited love for 'beautiful Maria of my soul' - and their changing fortunes as they try to make it big in America.

Reviews

Street-smart and lyrical, impassioned and reflective ... a rich and provocative book * The New York Times *
By turns street-smart and lyrical, impassioned and reflective, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is a rich and provocative book--a moving portrait of a man, his family, a community and a time -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *
The book is a hymn to music, to heterosexual love... There is a hedonism and pain, ecstasy and despair, devotion and lechery.... A fantastic novel * Evening Standard *

Author Bio

Oscar Hijuelos was born of Cuban parentage in New York City in 1951. He is a recipient of the Rome Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, among others. His five novels have been translated into twenty-five languages.