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A review by nicolemhewitt
Your Heart, My Sky: Love in a Time of Hunger by Margarita Engle
5.0
This review and many more can be found on my blog: Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Your Heart My Sky highlights a time in Cuba’s history that many people don’t know about: “The special period in times of peace.” Sounds wonderful, right? Well, I suppose that’s how the government wanted people to see it, but many people in Cuba were actually starving during this time (I was amazed to find out this took place in 1991—I was in high school at this time and had absolutely no idea what was happening to people in Cuba). The story follows Liana and Amado, both students who are avoiding the country’s “voluntary” summer work program and trying to scrounge up enough food to stay alive. Dodging their duties is enough to be seen as a traitor and find themselves arrested, so it only feels like one more dangerous step when they begin to aid people fleeing the country on makeshift rafts, and one more when they learn to grow an illegal garden. Plus, they know that Amado will be forced into the military once he’s sixteen or face imprisonment like his brother. The two fall in love and have to decide whether to stay in Cuba and fight for a better life there or brave the dangerous seas and flee. The book is written in a beautifully poetic style (it feels more like poetry than many of the verse novels I’ve read), and the stakes are incredibly high. I think this book will stick with me for a very long time.
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher for review purposes. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
Your Heart My Sky highlights a time in Cuba’s history that many people don’t know about: “The special period in times of peace.” Sounds wonderful, right? Well, I suppose that’s how the government wanted people to see it, but many people in Cuba were actually starving during this time (I was amazed to find out this took place in 1991—I was in high school at this time and had absolutely no idea what was happening to people in Cuba). The story follows Liana and Amado, both students who are avoiding the country’s “voluntary” summer work program and trying to scrounge up enough food to stay alive. Dodging their duties is enough to be seen as a traitor and find themselves arrested, so it only feels like one more dangerous step when they begin to aid people fleeing the country on makeshift rafts, and one more when they learn to grow an illegal garden. Plus, they know that Amado will be forced into the military once he’s sixteen or face imprisonment like his brother. The two fall in love and have to decide whether to stay in Cuba and fight for a better life there or brave the dangerous seas and flee. The book is written in a beautifully poetic style (it feels more like poetry than many of the verse novels I’ve read), and the stakes are incredibly high. I think this book will stick with me for a very long time.
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher for review purposes. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***