My books

Habanera, A Portrait of a Cuban Family (Floricanto Press, 2010)

To watch a book trailer of Habanera, click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSB-2HqBBMQ

Habanera is a wonderfully lively and entertaining journey, alternately humorous and wistful. By the end, you will feel as if you have traveled to one of the most exotic islands on earth, during its most surrealistic historical moment. Dovalpage is a master of quirky, loveable characters, and emotionally resonant narrative. Habanera bursts with the energetic curiosity and hopefulness of youth.

Margarita Engle, Newbery Honor-winning author of The Surrender Tree.

La Habanera is an irresistible, even wickedly addictive ride into dysfunction within dysfunction. Rich in wit and irony provided by Longina, a savvy young narrator coming of age in an eccentric family living in post-revolutionary Cuba, this novel delivers what Dovalpage does best: laugh-out-loud humor and deeply felt, deeply moving drama-all of it sharply spiced with bad and bawdy sandunga!

Lorraine López, author of The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters, winner of the Miguel Marmol Prize for Fiction and a finalist for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award.

An Abuela called Muñeca, an excerpt of Habanera published in the Tiki Tiki blog

http://tikitikiblog.com/an-abuela-called-muneca/#axzz1MwtKD9Dd

Reviews

Habanera, by Stephen Karl, originally published in the Adirondack Review

http://adirondackreview.homestead.com/book131.html

Best Fiction Books

http://bestfictionbook.blogspot.com/2011/01/habanera-portrait-of-cuban-family.html

Interview and review published in the Latina Book Club

http://www.latinabookclub.com/2011/05/review-habanera-by-teresa-dovalpage.html

Review and interview by Nicole Weaver published in Seattle Pi

http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Book-Review-Habanera-A-Portrait-of-a-Cuban-1442692.php

http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Interview-with-Teresa-Dovalpage-Author-of-1459762.php

A review by Chiquis Barron http://chiquisbarron.blogspot.com/2011/05/book-review-habanera-portrait-of-cuban.html

A portrait of these Cuban times, by Margaret Duran, Ph.D. http://www.ernestospage.blogspot.com/

A sad song to Havana, by Olga Karman published in LatinoLA http://latinola.com/story.php?story=9090

Cuban author Teresa Dovalpage’s latest book is out, a review in The Latino Books by Mayra Calvani Examiner http://www.examiner.com/latino-books-in-national/cuban-author-teresa-dovalpage-s-latest-book-is-out

Cuba: myths and reality, by Servando Gonzáles, published in Gaspar, El Lugareño http://www.ellugareno.com/2010/11/cuba-myths-and-reality.html

Buy it here

http://www.floricantopress.com/habanera.htm

Or in Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Habanera-Portrait-Family-Teresa-Dovalpage/dp/1888205377

A Girl like Che Guevara (Soho Press, 2004)

1982. Havana, Cuba. Sixteen-year-old Lourdes yearns to emulate Che Guevara, and has a healthy disgust for gusanos (worms)-those who fled Cuba on the Mariel boatlift. Every summer she and other high school students work in the nationalized tobacco fields to prove their dedication to Fidel and the Revolution.

Lourdes, herself the product of a biracial marriage, outwardly scoffs at the old ways but she wears an azabache amulet under her clothing, next to her Che medallion to ward off evil spirits. She secretly prays to the orisha Yemayá, while she pledges her fealty to Fidel and the socialist ideals of her father, a professor of scientific communism at the University of Havana.

As she struggles with her confused sexuality, the pervasive race issues that are sundering her parents’ marriage, and the harsh realities of life in a glorified work camp, Lourdes begins to question her allegiances. Why does she want to be like Che?

Buy it in Amazon (the book or Kindle)

http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Like-Che-Guevara/dp/1569473587

Reviews

Powell’s Books

MostlyFiction

BabaluBlog

Bookslut

http://www.bookslut.com/bookslut_in_training/2006_08_009637.php

Review by Faiza Elmasry published by the Voice of America

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-New-Book-Explores-Cuban-Youth-Attitude-Towards-Che-Guevara-66874577.html

Posesas de La Habana (PurePlay Press, 2004, in Spanish)

(Haunted Ladies of Havana)

Synopsis

During one of Havana’s enforced blackouts, in 2000, three women and an eleven-year old girl reflect on their lives and uncover a century of Cuban history. But when different generations live under one roof, disputes are likely to break out. And when four out of five family members are female, the estrogen building up in a two-bedroom apartment reaches dramatic proportions. To make things worse, a burglar known as the Tongue-ripper terrorizes the neighborhood… The characters of Posesas de La Habana live not merely at the edge but in the middle of a constant nervous breakdown. Can these women find hope on an island where the sea appears as the only route to salvation?

Buy it at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0971436673/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&qid=1287037789&sr=1-&condition=new

Reviews

Originally published in Criticas Magazine

http://tumbacubana.typepad.com/tumba_cubana/2005/04/posesas_de_la_h.html

In Cuba Encuentro

http://arch1.cubaencuentro.com/cultura/elcriticon/20051028/eda67234804c1f4ec4c01ef02c0ac4e7/1.html

Translation of the first pages

http://www.elateje.com/0412/especial041209.htm

Sexo y papas fritas: Cuba en la oscuridad en Posesas de la Habana de Teresa Dovalpage

Article by Marisela Fleites-Lear (LASA)

http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/members/congress-papers/lasa2009/files/FleitesLearMarisela.pdf

Muerte de un murciano en La Habana (Anagrama, 2006)

Death of a Murcian in Havana was a runner-up for the Herralde Award in 2006

Synopsis from Criticas magazine

Resembling a tragic zarzuela, this novel is narrated largely through the primary characters’ interior monologs, replete with earthy language. The setting is a bleak contemporary Cuba where sex tourism is rampant and the best one can hope for is salvation through foreign intervention. It is also a cautionary tale: condescending European sophistication is simply no match for the Cubans’ desperate bricolage. Left behind by friends who have escaped the privations of the island, brokenhearted Maricari consults with Mercedes/Teo, an ostensibly gay transvestite who claims to communicate with spirits. The spirits respond to Maricari’s pleas by sending her Pío, a Spaniard 40 years her senior, who buys her food and finer things. The spirits’ services are costly to all concerned, however, and while they disdain dilettantes like Mercedes, they unleash their wrath on those who disrespect the faithful. As the title foretells, poor, impious Murcian Pío gets the worst of it.

Buy it at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Muerte-murciano-Habana-Spanish-Dovalpage/dp/8433971417/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252720505&sr=1-2

Reviews

Review published in El País

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/narrativa/nevera/exito/elpepuculbab/20061223elpbabnar_7/Tes

Review in Shvoong

http://es.shvoong.com/books/mystery-and-thriller/1790248-la-muerte-murciano-en-la/

Review by Amir Valle published in Otro Lunes

http://www.otrolunes.com/hemeroteca-ol/numero-05/html/librario/librario-n05-a06-p01-2008.html

Review published in La verdad de Murcia

http://servicios.laverdad.es/ababol/pg070428/suscr/nec1.htm

¡Por culpa de Candela! (Floricanto Press, 2009)

(It’s all Candela’s fault!)

Synopsis

The main theme in this short-story collection is Cuba. Cuba, absent or present, real or imagined, from near and afar… the island is the common denominator to these fourteen tales of rage, nostalgia, love and love betrayed.

Buy it at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/culpa-Candela-Spanish-Teresa-Dovalpage/dp/1888205156/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252720505&sr=1-1

Reviews (in Spanish)

Review in TuMiami Blog

http://www.tumiamiblog.com/2009/01/de-candela-en-miami-y-de-la-dovalpage.html

Review in Homines

http://www.homines.com/palabras/culpa_candela_teresa_dovalpage/index.htm

Reseña de Augusto Díaz Riverón, publicada en Cañasanta

http://www.canasanta.com/cri-tica-de-libros/por-culpa-de-candela-00001.html

Review in Letralia

http://www.letralia.com/203/articulo08.htm

El Difunto Fidel (The late Fidel)

Spanish edition (Renacimiento, 2011)

American edition (Iduna, 2010)

Synopsis

This short novel won the V Rincon de la Victoria Award in Spain in 2009 and was published in 2010 by Editorial Iduna in Miami and in 2011 by Editorial Renacimiento in Seville, Spain. It is a bittersweet depiction of the chaotic life of a Cuban family in Miami. The wife and the lover of a deceased real-estate agent visit Encarnación, a renowned medium who has a botánica in Calle Ocho, in order to contact the spirit of their loved one, who was known as Philip but whose real name was Fidel. Following her clients’ request, Encarnación invokes Philip/Fidel’s ghost and starts writing down his life, which doesn’t always coincide with what his two families knew about him…It’s a story of love and lies in the times of the mortgage crisis.

Press release about the Rincón de la Victoria Award

http://www.infoaxarquia.es/2009/07/22/la-cubana-teresa-dovalpage-recibe-los-9000-euros-del-premio-de-novela-corta/

Announcement of the Rincon de la Victoria Award in Miranda Editors

http://mirandaeditors.wordpress.com/2009/04/

Read an excerpt in Diario de Cuba

http://www.diariodecuba.com/de-leer/la-medium-escribiente

Reviews (in Spanish)

Review by Niurka Dreke published in La Peregrina Magazine http://www.laperegrinamagazine.org/teresa_dovalpage_narrativa.html

Review by Carmen Duarte

http://piedralunacasadelescritor.blogspot.com/2010/10/resena-de-la-novela-el-difunto-fidel-de.html

Review by Chilean journalist Angélica Mora http://angelicamorabeals.blogspot.com/2010/10/literatura-del-fin-de-semana-el-difunto.html

Review and comments in Grafoscopio, by Rita Martin http://grafoscopio.blogspot.com/2010/10/teresa-dovalpage-el-difunto-fidel.html