“Everywhere you turn in Adios, Happy Homeland! you find a beautiful meld of tradition and modernism, an admirable mastery of irony, and a lyrical deposition on exile and homecoming. Take this balloon ride across the Carib-Cubano-Americano sea and landscape and you will relish the view.”

—Alan Cheuse

Pushcart Prize winner Ana Menéndez landed firmly in the literary landscape last year with the hardcover publication of In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd. Reviewers overwhelmingly agree that she is an important new voice in American fiction: hers is “a bright debut that points to even brighter accomplishments to come” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times), a tour de force that is “poignant and varied, emotionally vivid and hauntingly melancholy” (San Francisco Chronicle), and “a Cuban odyssey that conjures up Eugene O'Neill-like drama” (Kirkus Reviews).

In these linked tales about the Cuban-American experience and the immigrant experience in general, Ana Menéndez has instantly established herself as a natural storyteller who “probes with steady humor and astute political insight the dreams versus the realities of her characters” (Elle). From the prizewinning title story — a masterpiece of humor and heartbreak — unfolds a series of family snapshots that illuminate the landscape of an exiled community rich in heritage, memory, and longing for the past.

In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd is at once “tender and sharp-fanged” (L.A. Weekly) as Ana Menéndez charts the territory from Havana to Coral Gables with unforgettable passion and explores whether any of us are capable, or even truly desirous, of outrunning our origins.