Mirta Ojito
At long last: a book that does not glorify the Cuba of the 1950's or romanticize the terrible and ineffective government that tried to erase it from memory. (Mirta Ojito, author, Finding Manana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus)
Carlos Alberto Montaner
This magnificently written book is much more than an account of the life of a singular personage: it is a fascinating portrait of an era by now unknown even to the Cubans themselves. Whoever wishes to know what the island was like before the revolution must read this work. (Carlos Alberto Montaner, author of Journey to the Heart of Cuba)
Jon Lee Anderson
The Sugar King of Havana is a remarkable book. On the one hand, John Paul Rathbone has written the extraordinary life story of Cuba's late sugar baron Julio Lobo. Set against the epic sweep of Cuba's revolutionary history, this is also a deeply personal family memoir that clears a pathway to a part of Cuba's wounded soul. Beautifully written; a stunning achievement. (Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che and The Fall of Baghdad)
Cristina Garcia
This is a riveting story that goes well beyond traditional biography. In telling the tale of Cuban sugar magnate, Julio Lobosophisticated, complex, obsessive, a collector of Napoleon memorabilia and Hollywood starlets, as well as a ruthless businessmanMr. Rathbone illuminates the extraordinary history of Cuba itself, and the many worlds that evaporated with the onset of Castro's revolution. (Cristina Garcia, author of Dreaming in Cuban and The Lady Matador's Hotel)
From the Publisher
"An exceptionally rich portrait not only of an empire and its progenitor but Cuba itself, and the economic legacy of Castro's revolution, the loss of capital, and the end of Cuba's 'great age of sugar.'" -Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Francisco Goldman
This beautifully written, deeply felt biography of Cuba's most important sugar capitalist looks to the pastinto national and family historyalmost as if to meditate on Cuba's future, and accomplishes this with wonderful detail, nuance and balance. A fascinating and unexpectedly original story of Cuba. (Francisco Goldman, novelist and author of The Art of Political Murder)