Cultures collide in Leila Segal’s melancholy short stories about Cuba. Her debut collection focuses on the struggles of ordinary Cubans trying to make a life for themselves many years after Fidel Castro seized power. The picture is generally bleak, with taxi drivers, doctors, students and those in the tourist trade hoping for a better life in a country where most people are robbed of anything but the basics.
These natives rub up against foreigners traveling through the country. Many of these tourists are depicted as having perhaps romantic notions of what Cuba is like, particularly Havana. But most come away disappointed, unsure of their footing in the world.
In one exchange, a taxi driver studying to be a doctor and an older American woman discuss the merits of the communist country. ‘You and I can debate, if you like, whether we call this a life, or just existence,’ he tells her sourly.
It’s a telling indictment of what life is like for those living under Castro’s iron fist and those who see it from the perspective of passers-by. It’s easy enough to escape the country when you have an American or European passport; others just have to endure.
Segal’s writing is poetical and accomplished. Underneath the surface is the feeling that people from different backgrounds miss making connections with each other.
The author was born in London, trained as a barrister and is of Romanian, Lithuanian and Polish descent. The collection of stories - just over 100 pages - are inspired by her time spent in Havana and the province of Pinar del Rio.
You need not travel to Cuba to understand the universality of the message - humans are at once frail and hopeful.
Breathe is published by Flipped Eye
Available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/breathe/leila-segal/9780954157050
Leila wll be reading at The Jewish Book Week https://www.latinolife.co.uk/events/breathe-leila-segal-reads-her-cuban…
