PositiveShelf AwarenessOlder\'s otherworldly narrative, told from Marisol\'s (often irreverent) point of view, jumps around, as dreams tend to do. The action shifts between Marisol\'s memories, her experience as a not-quite-embodied spirit and Ramón\'s present-day waking encounters with the other characters. The novel gives a bleak, often heartrending perspective on a complicated revolution that tore Cuba apart, with multiple characters either switching allegiances or betrayed by those who did ... Between the grisly scenes of war, prison and heartbreak, the novel gives way to moments of lightness: Adina\'s dry sense of humor, wisecracks from assorted Cubano relatives, the growing love between Ramón and Aliceana. Infused with the pounding beats of Ramón\'s nightclub, the colors and sounds of prewar Cuba and the complicated ties of family, The Book of Lost Saints is a gritty, compelling look at love and war and the ways past actions reverberate down through the generations
