Beautiful Maria of My Soul

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

Maria 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 Maria of My Soul." Now in her sixties and living as an exile in Miami, Maria 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 Maria of My Soul is a stunning act of reinvention, and another contemporary classic from an extraordinarily talented writer.