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320 pages

English

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BAPTISM OF FIRE is a turbulent family drama and highly charged love story set in Cuba in 1956-1960 against the backdrop of Fidel Castro's revolution.

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Publié par	eBookPartnership.com
Date de parution	12 janvier 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781783013067
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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BAPTISM OF FIRE
Lucy Floyd
COPYRIGHT LUCY FLOYD 1992, 2014
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The right of Lucy Floyd to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 1992 by MACMILLAN LONDON LIMITED.
ISBN 978-1-78301-306-7
Also available in digital form by the same author YESTERDAY
Soon to be re-issued electronically during 2014/15
THE FIRST CASUALTY MERELY PLAYERS SISTERS AND STRANGERS BODY LANGUAGE
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
BAPTISM OF FIRE
Cuba in the nineteen-fifties is an island of exotic beauty, riddled with corruption and ripe for revolution. As Fidel Castro gathers support for his uprising, Ra l Soler, exiled son of a wealthy landowner, returns from the USA to his homeland, bent on reclaiming his lost inheritance. He has old scores to settle with his domineering bigot of a father and charming, feckless younger brother.
Ra l s quest will expose the many skeletons hidden in the Soler cupboard, enabling him to tear the family apart. But two newcomers undermine his ruthless drive for power and revenge: his downtrodden but passionate stepsister Celia, and her idealistic brother Eduardo, who will uncover Ra l s own dark secrets. Soon all of them will be caught up, willingly or not, in the political turmoil that will change their lives.
Jealousy, hatred and obsessive love converge in a journey of self-destruction and self-redemption, as violent and unstoppable as Cuba s own bid for freedom.
BAPTISM OF FIRE was originally published by Macmillan and Pan, as was YESTERDAY, by the same author, also recently re-issued as an e-book.
With her intelligence, insight and acute characterisation, the author demonstrates a talent for writing about the darker areas of people s psyches. - The Sunday Times.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lucy Floyd was born in London of Polish-Italian parentage and read French at King s College London. She has written 11 published novels, over 200 short stories and numerous screenplays for film and television. Her work has been translated into fourteen languages. In 2008 she moved from London with her photographer husband to the rural heartland of South West France.
Glossary Of Spanish Words And Terms Used In The Text
aguardiente - cane brandy
arroz con pollo - chicken with rice
bachillerato - matriculation exam
batey - group of buildings around sugar mill
bohio - worker s shack
bot nica - shop selling herbs and charms
central - sugar mill serving a large area
chica/chico - diminutive (little one, kid)
colonia - farm growing sugar cane
colono - farmer growing sugar cane
compa ero - comrade
curandera - healer
herradura - horseshoe
maric n - homosexual (pejorative)
mayombero - witch doctor
mayoral - overseer
medio - 5 centavos
muchacho/muchacha - boy/girl
mulatto/mulatta - person of mixed race
novio/novia - fianc /e
Patria o Muerte - (slogan) Motherland or Death
posada - cheap hotel
puta - prostitute
santero - Priest of santer a cult
FOREWORD
This novel opens in 1956 and ends in 1960. For those readers unfamiliar with Cuban history, the information set out below will help put the story in context.
After centuries as a Spanish colony, Cuba fought two wars of independence, firstly in 1868-78 and secondly in 1895-98. The victory which ensued from the latter struggle was marred, from a Cuban nationalist point of view, by the last-minute intervention of the USA on the side of the rebels. This led to an interim three-year period under US military supervision before the island became a self-governing republic.
After an initial period of stability, there followed a series of corrupt and exploitative r gimes, in which successive presidents ruled as virtual dictators and enriched themselves out of the national coffers; graft and gangsterism were rife. A lack of spending on welfare, health and education left a large divide between rich and poor. Cuba remained economically dependent on the US, its principal trading partner, which continued to exert considerable political influence.
Fulgencio Batista, an army sergeant, was active in overthrowing the dictator Machado in 1933, and his subsequent presidency was popular. But following a period out of office, he staged a second coup in 1952. Over the next seven years he presided over an unjust and brutal r gime which provided a breeding ground for insurrection. Revolutionary groups began a programme of urban terrorism. Those arrested were tortured and sometimes murdered by Batista s secret police. This served to increase support for the rebels among the middle classes.
Fidel Castro, a young lawyer, set up a guerrilla encampment in the Sierra Maestre and became the perceived leader of the movement to oust the dictator and install a new democratic government. Ensuing rebel victories over Batista s inefficient and corrupt army were less important than the inspiration which they gave to the oppressed and underprivileged masses. Military defeats, escalating sabotage in the towns and the withdrawal of US military support for the regime finally led to its collapse.
Castro effectively came to power on 1 January 1959, promising elections which have yet to take place. A worsening relationship with the US was both the cause and the effect of a rapid shift to Communism, with the support of the USSR. This departure from Castro s pledges of democracy caused many of his former supporters to turn against him, at their peril. A witch-hunt against counter-revolutionaries and the nationalisation of private companies resulted in dissenters, together with a large proportion of the bourgeoisie, fleeing the country.
The proposed invasion and liberation of Cuba by US-backed mercenaries resulted in the Bay of Pigs fiasco in April 1961. This served both to consolidate Castro s position and expose covert US intervention in Cuban affairs, and led indirectly to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
While the novel is set against the backdrop of these historical events, I would like to stress that all the characters and their doings are the product of my imagination and that any resemblance to any real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
CONTENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Glossary Of Spanish Words And Terms Used In The Text
FOREWORD
PART ONE December 1956 - March 1957
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
PART TWO June - September 1957
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
PART THREE DECEMBER 1957 - JULY 1958
ELEVEN
TWELVE
PART FOUR DECEMBER 1958 - SEPTEMBER 1960
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
PART ONE
December 1956 - March 1957
ONE
Le n reached for the soft sleeping flesh beside him with the lazy lust of a husband. Being with Addy was like being married, except that she wasn t his wife, thank God. And because he was free to go today, he would still be here tomorrow.
Addy yawned in indolent compliance. Young men were a luxury, they were happy to do all the work. She found sex a bore, even with Le n, but it was a comforting kind of boredom. It was like playing with a child, feigning fascination with its toys, sharing its world of make-believe and magic. The pleasure was vicarious, but none the less real for that. She dreaded the day when Le n would finally grow up, forsake let s-pretend for a reality which would exclude her.
Not bad, she said drily, half an hour later, reaching for her cigarettes. You re improving.
Le n smiled complacently and went to take a shower. Addy rang for coffee and opened the Venetian blinds, letting the brilliant December sun throw its merciless light on her dressing-table mirror. Quickly, before Le n returned, she removed what was left of yesterday s make-up and applied a fresh coat, reducing her galloping thirty-six years to a static twenty-nine. Even so, she still looked older than her lover. Le n, bless him, was a baby of twenty-five, one of those golden boys whom nothing could touch, whose life was still unsullied by shame or blame or responsibility, who could afford to waste his life because he had so much of it left. Whereas Addy had reached an age when she needed something to vindicate her past, something that would survive her fading face.
The well-appointed penthouse apartment, in the fashionable Havana suburb of Vedado, was a symbol of her progress from poverty to prosperity, from hungry hooker to thriving nightclub owner. And once her new casino, the Herradura, opened in March (with kind permission from the mobsters who would collect their share of her profits) she would be well on her way to being rich. Five more years and she could go home for good, be respectable again. Addy hadn t been respectable in twenty years. Like every other luxury in life, it came expensive.
Mar a, the maid, tapped on the door and brought in a tray - toast, a pot of strong sweet coffee, a jug of pink, pulpy papaya juice, and a copy of the English-language Havana Post . There were three letters, two addressed to Le n and one for Addy, from Lily. She tore it open, anticipating trouble.
10 December 1956
Dear Mom
I hate you. How can you do this to me? I was so looking forward to Christmas and now I am dreading it. It will be miserable without you there. Can you imagine three weeks of hanging round St Pete s with Grandma treating me as if I was about five years old? And no, I haven t had any invitations to stay with any of my class