Carlos Eire

I happened to catch yesterday's broadcast of Fresh Air while sitting in the cell phone lot at the airport. The time passed almost without notice as I listened to Carlos Eire's sonorous voice describe the experience of leaving his homeland, his parents, and all that was familiar to escape Castro's Cuba in 1962. He tells the story in his new book Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy. This can be read in conjunction with Eire's Waiting for Snow in Havana which describes his childhood in Cuba and won the National Book Award in 2003. Either would make a great gift and together they paint a fascinating portrait of a life lived very consciously.