“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.”

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.