The Pulitzer Prize winning modern classic of two Cuban musician
brothers during the mambo-filled nights of 50's New York from literary
trailblazer, Oscar Hijuelos.
It's 1949 and two young Cuban musicians make their way from Havana to
the grand stage of New York City. It is the era of mambo, and the
Castillo brothers, workers by day, become stars of the dance halls by
night, where their orchestra plays the lush, sensuous, pulsing music
that earns them the title of the Mambo Kings. This is their moment of
youth, exuberance, love, and freedom―a golden time that decades later is
remembered with nostalgia and deep affection.
Hijuelos's portrait of the Castillo brothers, their families, their
fellow musicians and lovers, their triumphs and tragedies, recreates the
sights and sounds of an era in music and an unsung moment in American
life.
Exuberantly celebrated from the moment it was published in 1989, The
Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in
1990 (making Hijuelos the first Hispanic recipient of the award). It
remains a perennial bestseller, and the story's themes of cultural
fusion and identity are as relevant today as they were over 30 years
ago, proving Hijuelos's novel to be a genuine and timeless classic.
