Novels, essay, and poetry in a year of memory, critique, and literary resistance
14ymedio, Havana, January 10, 2026 — Cuban literature in 2025 once again demonstrated that, even in a context of editorial scarcity, censorship, and geographic dispersion, books remain one of the most effective tools for thinking about the country. From the Island and from exile, through major international imprints or independent publishers, Cuban authors released works that engaged with memory, power, intimacy, violence, and everyday survival. Throughout the year, 14ymedio reviewed these new publications, paying attention not only to literary quality but also to the texts’ ability to challenge and question the reality of the Island. From that ongoing coverage emerges this selection of the 14 most relevant Cuban books of 2025, read as a narrative and essayistic body that, taken together, offers a snapshot of the cultural moment.
Among the novels that achieved the greatest visibility is La viajera nocturna [The Night Traveler] (Ediciones B) by Armando Lucas Correa, a work that confirms the insertion of Cuban narrative into the international publishing circuit without losing historical depth or literary ambition. With effective prose and a narrative architecture designed for a broad readership, Correa once again demonstrates the power of telling stories of universal scope through an exploration of the traumas of the twentieth century and their present-day resonances.
In a completely different register, Juan Abreu returned with Debajo de la mesa [Under the Table] (Ladera Norte), an uncomfortable, ferocious, and deeply personal book. Abreu writes from memory not to idealize it, but to blow it apart. His prose, marked by exile, sexuality, and a break with any complacent canon, reminds us that an essential part of contemporary Cuban literature continues to be built from aesthetic and moral dissidence.
Psychological introspection also found a significant place in the novel Narcisos [Narcissus] (Editorial Huso) by Eduardo López Collazo. The lives of eight men are told through the gaze of Carmen, a psychologist who gradually discovers herself over the course of the narrative. The author, a renowned physician living in Spain, defines the novel as a search to understand “who we are when no one is looking at us, not even ourselves.”
The rawest fiction found one of its strongest exponents in Sórdida tropical (Sordid Tropics) by Carlos Lechuga.
In the realm of essay and political reflection, Entre Rusia y Cuba [Between Russia and Cuba] (Ladera Norte) by Jorge Ferrer offered one of the clearest views of a historical relationship that marked generations. Ferrer combines analysis, memory, and personal experience to dismantle both nostalgia and propaganda, proposing a critical reading of the ideological, economic, and human ties between the two countries.
That will to dismantle reaches one of its most forceful expressions in Del dicho al hecho. La leyenda de la sanidad en Cuba 1902–2024, (From Saying to Doing: The Legend of Health Care in Cuba, 1902–2024), self-published by Antonio Guedes. The book stands as one of the most necessary investigations of the moment, as it questions one of the pillars of the official narrative: the supposed excellence of the Cuban health care system. With data, historical context, and an accessible tone, Guedes dismantles myths and restores complexity to a debate hijacked for decades by propaganda.
The most unflinching fiction found in Sórdida tropical [Sordid Tropics] (Hypermedia) by Carlos Lechuga is one of its most solid examples. Also a filmmaker, Lechuga writes from disenchantment and rawness, without concessions to easy lyricism or revolutionary epic. His novel portrays a harsh Cuba, marked by symbolic and material violence, where characters survive in an environment that constantly expels them.
Poetry, for its part, found in Reina María Rodríguez one of its highest expressions with Mazorcas (Rialta). Considered one of the most important female voices in living Cuban poetry, Rodríguez delivers a mature collection in which the word functions as intimate archive, resistance, and reflection on time, the city, and loss. The volume confirms that poetry continues to be a privileged space for thinking the unsayable.
In the realm of internationally prominent narrative, Leonardo Padura once again occupied a central place with Morir en la arena (To Die in the Sand) (Tusquets). Far from repeating himself, Padura explores new layers of the crime genre to probe violence, memory, and moral decay, maintaining that unique ability to turn entertainment into a critical tool.
In Libertad vigilada: la poesía de Severo Sarduy (Guarded Freedom: The Poetry of Severo Sarduy) (Verbum), Joaquín Roses starts from a premise as simple as it is necessary: it is not possible to fully understand Sarduy’s writing without attending to his poetry, a claim the author himself made during his lifetime. This essay focuses on the twenty-one sonnets of Un testigo fugaz y disfrazado, 1985 (A Fleeting and Disguised Witness, 1985), a volume marked by the use of chromaticism and sonic geometry.
One of the year’s most ambitious editorial projects was José Lezama Lima: A Biography. Formative Years (1910–1939), by Ernesto Hernández Busto
The volume Bay of Pigs: The Two Sides of the Story (Ediciones Material) (published in English) by writer and journalist Miguel Ángel Sánchez Martínez opts for rigor, contrast, and shared memory. The book addresses the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 through meticulous, chronological research, drawing on declassified CIA documents and testimonies from both sides to dismantle opposing narratives and recover areas erased by official history.
One of the most ambitious publishing bets of the year was José Lezama Lima: una biografía. Años de formación, 1910–1939 (Editorial Pre-Textos) (José Lezama Lima: A Biography. Formative Years 1910-1939) (Editorial Pre-Textos), by Ernesto Hernández Busto. More than a traditional biography, the book reconstructs the cultural ecosystem in which Lezama was formed, offering a renewed reading of a central figure of the canon and engaging with the intellectual history of twentieth-century Cuba.
Meanwhile, the political thriller found a solid expression in El otro espía (The Other Spy) (Saturn Forlag), by Humberto López Guerra, a novel that uses espionage as a metaphor to explore loyalties, betrayals, and the exercise of power. Its narrative effectiveness and historical background made it one of the most talked-about reads of the year.
The editorial close of 2025 was marked by two milestones. First, the announcement of a new critical edition, revised and updated by Yoandy Cabrera, of the poetry of Delfín Prats, presented as a tribute on the poet’s birthday. The recovery of his work reaffirms the need to reread living classics with contemporary critical tools. Second, there is the publication of Cuba en mi memoria: república, castrismo, exilio, (El Ateje) (Cuba in My Memory: Republic, Castroism, Exile) by Manuel C. Díaz, a book of political memoirs that traverses three fundamental moments of national history and dialogues with the testimonial tradition of exile.
Read together, these books form a complex cartography of Cuban literature in 2025: a space shaped by memory, critique of power, intimate exploration, and the urgent need to narrate. For 14ymedio, highlighting these works has also been a way of affirming that, even in times of crisis, books remain one of the best ways to understand Cuba.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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