“When I lived far from Cuba and I remembered the Malecon, its image came in unison with the sound of the waves. And my memory smelled of the sea, with a taste of salt and pain of time. This is the true image of this Havana’s significant boardwalk. It is a painting that has melody. It is something simple that refreshes our soul. Although it separates the sea from the land, it is like a starting point and like the return itself.”
– an excerpt from the book
ARPress is honored to publish “Havana 1995: English Version” by Ileana Gonzalez Monserrat. This book is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the ARPress website.
In a world where memory and longing often walk hand in hand, “Havana 1995: English Version” by Ileana González Monserrat stands as a lyrical testament to hope. Written before the fall of the Berlin Wall and envisioned as a prophecy of freedom, the book captures the soul of a people who have lived between exile and endurance. It is a meditation on belonging — for every reader who has ever left a homeland behind, or carried it silently within. Through eloquent reflection, Monserrat invites us into a vision of Cuba not just as a nation, but as a dream waiting to awaken.
Ileana Gonzalez Monserrat was born in Havana, Cuba. In her younger years, she refused to be part of the Communist Youth and for that she received warnings from the regime. She went into exile in Spain at the age of seventeen. Later, she moved to the United States and became a citizen of her new land, where she resides.
Havana 1995 unfolds through the voices of two men — one returning from exile, the other born in bondage — whose meeting symbolizes a nation divided yet destined for reconciliation. In their dialogue, Havana itself becomes a character, its once-bright streets and crumbling facades mirroring the soul of a country torn between past and future. The Malecón, the sea wall of Havana, stands as a witness to history — a place where longing meets the horizon, and where the sound of waves carries both memory and prophecy.
The book’s themes pulse with life: exile and return, identity and memory, freedom and forgiveness. Monserrat’s prose transforms these struggles into poetry, her characters embodying the tension between the Cuba that was and the Cuba that could be. Through their eyes, we see the quiet pain of those who left, the endurance of those who stayed, and the longing that unites them both. It is a conversation across time — between the heart and homeland, the dream and the daybreak.
Havana 1995 invites every reader to pause and ponder: What does it mean to return? Can a homeland be rebuilt when its people have been scattered, its truth silenced, its hope deferred? Through these questions, Monserrat reminds us that freedom begins not with power, but with remembrance — and that the truest revolution is often of the heart.
For anyone who has ever felt displaced, divided, or disillusioned, Havana 1995 is a lighthouse of memory. It calls to those who dream of rebuilding not just a country, but a soul. Through its pages, Ileana González Monserrat offers both lament and promise: that the story of Cuba — and of every nation that has wandered through shadow — is not yet over, and that dawn still waits beyond the horizon.
Havana 1995 is more than a novel — it’s a spiritual journey home, a timeless reminder that the soul of a people, like the tide, can always find its way back.
“Havana 1995: English Version” by Ileana Gonzalez Monserrat is now available for purchase via ARPress Bookstore: