Cuban brothers Nestor and Cesar Camillo come to New York City in 1949 with dreams of becoming famous Mambo musicians. This memorable novel traces the arc of the two brothers’ lives—one charismatic and macho, the other soulful and sensitive—from Havana to New York, from East Coast clubs and dance halls to the heights of musical fame.

An international bestseller and the 1990 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love was made into a popular movie in 1992 starring Antonio Banderas and Armand Assante. With a new afterword by Oscar Hijuelos, this book has stood the test of time as a groundbreaking work of American literature.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The child of Cuban immigrants, Oscar Hijuelos (1951–2013) was an American-born novelist and the first Hispanic writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. A native New Yorker, he earned a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the City College of New York, where he studied under Susan Sontag, Donald Barthelme, and William S. Burroughs.

In addition to the Pulitzer, Hijuelos won the Rome Prize, an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award, the Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature as well as several grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He wrote seven novels which have been translated into more than 25 languages.

Amazon.com Review

Inspired by their heroes Xavier Cugat and Desi Arnaz, brothers Cesar and Nestor Castillo come to New York City from Cuba in 1949 with designs on becoming mambo stars. Eventually they do--performing with Arnaz on "I Love Lucy" in 1955 and recording 78s with their own band, the Mambo Kings. In his second novel, Hijuelos traces the lives of the flashy, guitar-strumming Cesar and the timid, lovelorn Nestor as they cruise the East Coast club circuit in a flamingo-pink bus. Enriching the story are the brothers' friends and family members--all driven by their own private dreams. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love won a Pulitzer Prize in 1990.



“Savor the mysterious power of a master’s pentimento.”

—Los Angeles Times

**

“It takes a lot of nerve and skill to pull off something as rich as Beautiful MarÍa of My Soul, but pull it off Hijuelos does.”

—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“I fell instantly in love with the glorious soul of Beautiful MarÍa of My Soul. Hijuelos has created and brought to life two beloved characters, a heart-stealing heroine and Havana during an epoch of changing fate.”

—Amy Tan, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club

In Beautiful MarÍa of My Soul, Oscar Hijuelos returns to the passionate tale he began twenty years ago in The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.

MarÍa is the great Cuban beauty who stole musician Nestor Castillo’s heart and broke it, inspiring him to write the Mambo Kings’ biggest hit, “Beautiful MarÍa of My Soul.'” Now in her sixties and living as an exile in Miami, MarÍa remains a beauty, still capable of turning heads. But while she left Cuba decades ago, she has never forgotten Nestor. As she thinks back to her days—and nights—in Havana, an entirely new perspective on the Mambo Kings story unfolds. Beautiful MarÍa of My Soul is a stunning act of reinvention, and another contemporary classic from an extraordinarily talented writer.