Havana Lost
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Narrated by:
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James C. Lewis
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Diane Piron-Gelman
About this listen
On the eve of the Cuban Revolution, headstrong 18-year-old Francesca Pacelli flees from her ruthless Mafia-boss father in Havana to the arms of her lover, a rebel fighting with Fidel Castro. Her father, desperate to send her to safety in the US, resorts to torture and blackmail as he searches the island for her.
So begins the first part of a spellbinding saga that spans three generations of the same family. Decades later, the family is lured back to Cuba by the promise of untold riches. But pursuing those riches brings danger as well as opportunity, and ultimately, Francesca's family must confront the lethal consequences of their choices.
From the troubled streets of Havana to the mean streets of Chicago, Havana Lost reveals the true cost of chasing power instead of love.
Havana Lost is award-winning author Libby Fischer Hellmann's 10th novel and third thriller that explores how strife and revolution affect the human spirit. Havana Lost is a testament to Hellmann's gift for authentic historical detail as well as her talent for writing compulsively readable and listenable thrillers.
©2013 Libby Fischer Hellmann (P)2013 Libby Fischer HellmannListeners also enjoyed...
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Ann Blake, a rare-book expert and conservator, was imprisoned for a drunk-driving accident that she doesn't remember, one that resulted in the death of her husband, a famous rare-book expert. But she is freed from prison by CIA undercover agent Tucker Anderson in exchange for her help and expertise on the Library of Gold, a legendary collection of books that have been lost to the world for over a century.
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Exciting spy tale, and then....
- By Janice on 05-31-11
By: Gayle Lynds
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Next of Kin
- By: Sharon Sala
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Beth Venable has seen too much. Witness to a major mob hit, she's placed in protective custody until the trial. But after her third safe house is riddled with bullets, she goes offgrid to save herself. What the FBI can't do, her kinfolk will. The beautiful but forbidding Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky welcome Beth back, with dirt roads and rustic shacks a world apart from L.A. But her homecoming—even her blissful reunion with strong, silent Ryal Walker—is made bittersweet by the fight she's brought to the clan's doorstep.
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Outstanding!!! From start to finish....loved it!!!
- By M. Davis on 02-20-12
By: Sharon Sala
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The Becoming
- Anna Strong, Vampire, Book 1
- By: Jeanne C. Stein
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Anna Strong is trained for anything-until she's attacked one night, only to awaken in a dark world that exists between the living and the dead. Here, Anna struggles with her love for the two men who inhabit the realms of each: Max, a human DEA agent, and Avery, a Night Watcher who joins Anna in pursuit of the vampire who changed her life. Now, as her two worlds collide, fate plunges Anna into the ultimate battle between good and evil - where survival is not just for the living.
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Another new take on vampires and the paranormal.
- By Karen K on 02-26-11
By: Jeanne C. Stein
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Bitten
- The Otherworld Series, Book 1
- By: Kelley Armstrong
- Narrated by: Aasne Vigesaa
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Elena Michaels is the world’s only female werewolf. And she’s tired of it. Tired of a life spent hiding and protecting, a life where her most important job is hunting down rogue werewolves. Tired of a world that not only accepts the worst in her–her temper, her violence—but requires it. Worst of all, she realizes she’s growing content with that life, with being that person.
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Definitely written in the 2000s
- By Kathy Kuwano on 07-16-22
By: Kelley Armstrong
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Crimes by Moonlight
- Mysteries from the Dark Side
- By: Charlaine Harris - author/editor
- Narrated by: Natalie Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In number-one New York Times best-selling author Charlaine Harris’s "Dahlia Underground,” venerable vampire Dahlia Lynley-Chivers survives an attack by an anti-vampire terrorist group, only to show them they tried to blow up the wrong bloodsucker. Bailey Ruth Raeburn, a ghost assigned to assist humans in trouble, steps into the middle of a marital dispute with surprising twists in Carolyn Hart’s “Riding High”....
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Pleasantly surprised
- By Bonnie on 08-06-11
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The Conspiracy
- Maximum Security
- By: Kat Martin
- Narrated by: Ryan Turner
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Harper Winston’s brother has disappeared. Pursuing his dream of sailing the Caribbean, Michael hasn’t responded to texts or emails in days. When even the Coast Guard can’t find him, Harper is forced to take desperate measures. Which means going to Chase Garrett, once her brother’s best friend, now the only man she can trust...or so she hopes.
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The Conspiracy
- By Steph M on 05-01-19
By: Kat Martin
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Cry No More
- By: Linda Howard
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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With an astonishing blend of savvy, instinct, and passion, Milla Edge displays an uncanny gift for finding lost children. When all seems helpless, desperate souls from across the country come to her for hope and results. Traveling to a small village in Mexico on a reliable tip, Milla begins to uncover the dire fate of countless children who have disappeared over the years.
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Best of the best
- By Diana on 08-28-08
By: Linda Howard
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Vivian Apple at the End of the World
- By: Katie Coyle
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Seventeen-year-old Vivian Apple never believed in the evangelical Church of America, unlike her recently devout parents. But when Vivian returns home the night after the supposed 'Rapture,' all that's left of her parents are two holes in the roof. Suddenly, she doesn't know who or what to believe. With her best friend Harp and a mysterious ally, Peter, Vivian embarks on a desperate cross-country road trip through a paranoid and panic-stricken America to find answers.
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juvenile
- By emily on 12-16-19
By: Katie Coyle
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Every Waking Moment
- By: Brenda Novak
- Narrated by: Lenore Zann
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Emma Wright has finally escaped the dangerous man who's controlled her every move for the past six years. Taking her 5-year-old son, she has fled across the country seeking freedom, safety, and a fresh start. But Max's father isn't giving them up so easily.
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Great listen!
- By Julie on 08-03-05
By: Brenda Novak
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Ten Beach Road
- By: Wendy Wax
- Narrated by: Amy Rubinate
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Madeline, Avery, and Nikki are strangers to each other, but they have one thing in common. They each wake up one morning to discover their life savings have vanished, along with their trusted financial manager - leaving them with nothing but co-ownership of a ramshackle beachfront house. Throwing their lots in together, they take on the challenge of restoring the historic property. But just as they begin to reinvent themselves and discover the power of friendship, secrets threaten to tear down their trust.
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Terrible narrator
- By Kindle Customer on 10-17-18
By: Wendy Wax
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Hush Money
- Hush Money Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: T. E. Woods
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Madison is booming with dreamers and drifters, visionaries and entrepreneurs. Among them is Sydney Richardson, the daughter of a cop who died on these streets and now the proud, stressed-out owner of Hush Money, one of the city's top new restaurants. Like everyone else in town, Sydney is shocked when Madison's popular mayor - a crusty, charismatic man of the people - is shot to death in his own home. But the news hits especially close to home for Sydney because one of her own stands accused of the brutal crime. Sydney's the one person that Wanda Fields, a quiet, hardworking waitress and single mother, can think to call after her arrest.
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T E Woods sure know how to write 'em!
- By shelley on 02-14-18
By: T. E. Woods
What listeners say about Havana Lost
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Gaele
- 11-13-13
Overall: 5 Narration: 5 Story: 4.5
Libby Fischer Hellman was my entrée into the suspense / thriller AudioBooks, and the quality that I noticed in her other titles: both historical accuracy and characters created to bring the “feel” of the events to life are exemplary. In her pairing of work with narration, Diane Piron-Gelman is the perfect narrator, and for a twist, she has added the narrating talents of James C. Lewis: a dual narration that matches the story in both tone and pitch, and provides a listen that is both pleasant and easy to comprehend.
Havana Lost brings us three generations all with ties to both Havana and Chicago, but starting with Francesca, daughter of a Mafia man with ties to Chicago; he is running a casino in Havana in 1958 (pre-revolution). Francesca meets and falls in love with a pro-Castro revolutionary and runs away with him rather than cooperate with her parents’ plans to return her to the less-volatile Chicago.
From here the nuancing of characters and extensive research come into play: what is commonly believed as a good/bad or black/white issue around the Cuban revolution and conversion to communism (with a healthy dose of time expended to show ties between Cuba and Angola) give a healthy shade of grey to explore, from that viewpoint alone this is a history lesson without the boring bits!
In typical strong-arm fashion, Francesca is found and returned to her parents care, and married off before her pregnancy becomes a known issue. Her growth throughout the story, the hardened edges and maturity are impressive, while never refusing to acknowledge the ties she and her son have to Cuba. These ties will lead her son and granddaughter to return in search of a rumored buried treasure: each one brings a vision of Cuba past its glory days of the 30’s and 50’s with Hemingway at the bar and casinos bringing American tourists to spend. From gentle decline to abject poverty, secretive revolutionary thinking and harsh punishments for those who speak out: this story shows a correlation in the family losses to the country’s decline that are near parallel.
Narration is perfect in this story: never harsh or overbearing, not distracting or overly emoted, the narrators match pitch and tone with patois and delivery to delineate characters, giving readers a sense of who is speaking at all times. If there is one weakness, it is the rush to the finish to wrap the story up with conclusions that are not quite signaling the end of the road, but presenting a bleak picture of both life with the mafia and life in modern Cuba. Full of twists and turns, and several unexpected moments this was a listen that was hard to put on pause, and has whet the appetite for more.
I received an AudioBook version of the title for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
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- Tensy
- 06-17-14
Multi-generational thriller set in pre-Castro Cuba
Any additional comments?
I was first attracted to this book because of the locale being set in Havana right before the revolution. I was born there and left soon after Castro took over in 1962, so I was prepared to read critically about the accuracy of the depictions of Cuba in the story. Hellman does a fine job in the first part of the novel describing the sounds and features of pre-Castro Cuba. The characters of Frankie, and her casino owner father were nicely developed, as was the love story. However, the rest of the novel proceeds at a hectic speed spanning two more generations and love stories. This leaves the reader wanting for character development and makes the love stories proceed at a frantic, and frankly unbelievable, pace. It is a good thriller with a unique mystery to resolve which makes you keep paging forward with the novel, but once again the pacing was a bit too hurried.
The narration by James Lewis and Dianne Piron-Gelman was well acted, with good pronunciations of the Spanish language sequences.
I received a copy of the audiobook from the author for a review.
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- Brian PDX
- 10-20-13
Historical romance/strong women protagonists-Great
My first Libby Fischer Hellmann audiobook-it won't be my last. A fascinating story arc from the late 1950s pre Cuban embargo-historically correct-I went to Cuba on a family vacation in the late 1950s. For a 16 year old California girl, Havana was even more wild than Hollywood. And the surfing was better too. Cuba was a beautiful land with pre revolutionary rumblings that finally frightened all the NorteAmericanos out.
Details the lives of 2 strong women who couldn't rely on the men in their lives; they took care of themselves, alone and pregnant..(pre birth control). This book was superior in detailing how some people just don't learn---Frankie,the willful 17 year North American girl, raised in Cuba who was torn from her lovers arms, pregnant with his child and forced to marry a cold older unloving man, remained willful as a senior citizen-in charge of the 'company'. Her daughter in law, Carla,a doctor in cuba was a nobody in America. She had the strength to repeat medical school when circumstances found her in Chicago, pregnant and broke and. finally, the young grand daughter and daughter who got caught up in the intricate manipulations of grand mother..It brought back to mind how controlled women were pre birth control when women got pregnant easily and had no control over their lives. The birth control pill didn't come out until the early 1960s and what a huge difference that made in the lives of women all over the world.
I wished this book would have been longer! I think Hellmann could have really gotten deeper into the character development. These were women I liked, for all their flaws and it ended with me wanting to know more about them and what happened when.....(no spoilers here) As it is, it's over 10 hours, but I didn't want it to end. I'd like to see a sequel to the book-there were some cliff-hangers that could be developed nicely (Hint-hint).
I listen to this book straight thru..began it at 9PM-fell asleep to it about 1AM... Thank goodness for my iPad sleep setting..I dreamt about Havana, woke up at 6AM and turned it back on again and listened almost all day until it was finished. For me, "Havana Lost" really got into my brain! A definite listen again and well worth your credit, if action and strong women protagonists are to your liking.
I received this book free from the author for a fair review..she gained a listener! Thanks Libby!
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5 people found this helpful
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- Snoodely
- 08-23-13
Historical Fiction at its Best
Thank goodness for Libby Fischer Hellmann. She loves the study of history so much that she can even enthrall a historiphobe like me. Fans of the historical fiction genre will love "Havana Lost," because of its pitch-perfect depictions of the historical time (spanning the Cuban revolution to the present day); and historiphobes will love "Havana Lost," because of how painlessly -- even, at times, pleasurably -- it teaches us about a significant period of recent history. Even though I, myself, lived through this time period -- as an adult, mind you -- I had little interest in the profound changes that were taking place in Cuba. I learned a lot from listening to "Havana Lost!"
Throughout this novel runs a theme of 𝘳𝒆𝘴o𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘳, a Spanish word meaning something like: "Doing whatever it takes to stay alive." Hellmann does not spare us merciless depictions of the poverty that the Cuban people have been enduring for the past half-century, thanks to a glorious revolution that was supposed to "free" them. As I listened to "Havana Lost," I kept remembering the wonderful 1999 film, "Buena Vista Social Club," in which jazz guitarist Ry Cooder documented the amazing musicians who have emerged from this Cuban crucible. If you have not yet seen this movie, and you are thinking of purchasing "Havana Lost," I recommend that you rent, buy, or borrow "Buena Vista Social Club" -- not only because it will provide you with visual references to the Havana locales depicted in "Havana Lost," but also because it illustrates the truly profound meaning of Cuban 𝘳𝒆𝘴o𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘳. These remarkable musicians have -- against all odds -- pursued their art throughout incredibly difficult lives, despite politics, repression, and poverty. "Havana Lost" does not deal with Cuban music; but it demonstrates the same spirit of perseverance through hard times: 𝘳𝒆𝘴o𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘳.
The narrators of "Havana Lost" do an adequate -- if not stellar -- job of reading "Havana Lost." Although the story lends itself to narration by two actors -- on male and one female -- I think that this book deserved better actors. The male actor -- James C. Lewis -- sounds too old for most the parts that he narrates; and the female actor -- Diane Perone-Gelman -- sounds too young for most of her characters. Neither actor does an outstanding job of distinguishing the characters from one another through voice and accent changes. However, the quality of writing and story-telling overshadow any slight shortcomings in the narration. I recommend "Havana Lost" pretty much unconditionally.
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4 people found this helpful