Towns in the Farmington Valley have selected Carlos Eire's Waiting for Snow in Havana for its "Farmington Valley One Book" program in September and October. Each of the seven towns-Avon, Bristol, Burlington, Canton, Farmington, Granby, and Simsbury-will be hosting a scholar-led book discussion in September or October, and a number of other events will lend support to the reading of the book.

Canton's book discussion on Monday, September 22 at 7:00 PM will be led by Connecticut Humanities Scholar Jane Hoben. Ms Hoben visited Cuba in January 2007 as part of a group granted a humanitarian license to travel to the island. Her photos of Cuba will be exhibited in the library's gallery for the month of September.

Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy is the memoir of Eire's boyhood in pre-Castro Cuba. In a stream-of-consciousness style, Eire describes ordinary childhood experiences which could be set anywhere in the world but in this instance are colored by the geography and politics of mid-nineteenth century Cuba, when the island country was the playground of the rich and decadent. Eire's family enjoyed a privileged aristocratic life before Batista's regime was overthrown at the end of 1958. Eire's father was a judge who happened to believe he was the reincarnation of Louis XVI. As Castro made life in Cuba increasingly restrictive and unpleasant for the wealthy and privileged, the Peter Pan airlift was organized to transport 14,000 Cuban children to Miami. Carlos and his brother were part of this airlift, leaving behind their parents. Although Carlos' mother eventually joined the boys in the US, his father chose not to leave Cuba, and Carlos never saw his father again.

Eire's memoir, which mixes memory and imagination, portrays a Cuba which no longer exists and to which, therefore, expatriates will no longer be able to return. The memoir also vilifies Fidel Castro, the man who has transformed Cuba into a country which has bedeviled US Presidents for the last half century. Eire, who is a professor of history and religion at Yale University, has never returned to his boyhood home.

In the past year, the US has closely watched the unfolding political landscape in Cuba as Fidel Castro has stepped down and his brother Raul has assumed leadership. Cuba continues to fascinate us, and a reading and discussion of Waiting for Snow in Havana draws upon this increased interest in a country which lies a mere 70 miles off the coast of Florida.

Public libraries in the towns in the Farmington Valley began hosting community read programs in 2002 with the reading of Richard Russo's Empire Falls, a novel about a former mill town fallen on hard times. Canton's discussion was held at LaSalle Market in Collinsville, a few hundred feet from Canton's own former mill, the Collins Company. In 2006, the year that both Burlington and Canton marked their bicentennials, the two towns read Howard Frank Mosher's Stranger in the Kingdom, with a community discussion and an author visit. In 2007, towns in the Farmington Valley read Mary-Anne Tirone Smith's Girls of Tender Age, a funny and moving memoir of growing up in the Hartford area.

The "Farmington Valley One Book" program is being funded by the Lloyd David and Carlye Cannon Wattis Foundation. All of the events, including the appearance of Carlos Eire, are free. Copies of the book are available at each library. For adults looking for a good summer reading selection, Waiting for Snow in Havana may fit the bill very nicely.