A follow-up novel to Dreaming in Cuban that tracks four generations of the del Pino family against the tumultuous backdrops of Cuba, the U.S., Germany, and Russia in the new millennium.
Aside from snippets of expository text that situate Vanishing Maps as a stand-alone novel, the book is not invested in explaining the Cuban diaspora to the unfamiliar ... García seems less interested in the land mine of historical accuracy than in the emotional registers of its fractured interpretations ... Alongside her own stylistic experimentation, García allows for a slipperiness between what is real and what can only be explained in the untranslatable languages of specters and Santería.
Readers will commiserate with Ivanito through his trials and tribulations with problematic family members and emotional trauma as García serves up a sabroso (tasty) smorgasbord of muy human family foibles, from obsession to passion, forbearance, and all kinds of love.
