Published in 1989, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is the second novel by the Cuban-American writer Oscar Hijuelos. Much of the novel takes place in the mind of Cesar Castillo as he spends the last hours of his life in a derelict hotel room listening to songs recorded by his old band, The Mambo Kings. Scenes from Cesar’s life tell the story of how he and his brother, Nestor, left Cuba in the early 1950s and immigrated to New York City. The Castillo brothers were gifted musicians, and when they arrived in New York the city was in the midst of a mambo craze. Through his memories, Cesar relives the vitality of the 1950s mambo scene. He thinks, too, about Nestor’s obsessive work on a single song, and about the lives of the women Nestor loved. Cesar also contemplates the massive changes in Cubans’ lives after Fidel Castro took power in 1959. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, marking the first time a Hispanic writer had received the honor. The novel was also adapted into the critically successful 1992 film, The Mambo Kings, which starred Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas.

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The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

 
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