It Can't Last

Hindsight is 20-20, so we know that while Lucía's family has hope (at least in the beginning) that "their" Cuba will be "their" Cuba again  very soon, we know that is not in the cards.  Even with Castro's death, Communist Cuba will probably be Communist Cuba for a long time to come.  Those were some of the saddest parts for me.  It reminded me of the mom in A Night Divided, who believed that East Germany would be united with West Germany in a short time, too.
It might seem like I had a theme going on here, with AND in my recent reading past, but I had no idea what to expect with The Red Umbrella.  It was another of the wonderful free audio downloads from Overdrive this summer. When I saw it this week I had it confused with some other book about a bicycle that won a YA award once, but I couldn't get into it and it wasn't on audio.  And now I can't find any trace of it at all!
But that is neither here nor there, except to say that I am glad I had it confused and so glad I downloaded it and really enjoyed this book.  I mean, it was sad and hard and also really hopeful and beautiful.