\ o e 'HV Praisefor OURHOUSEINTHE LAST WORLD by Oscar Hijuelos ''This is Hijuelos'sfirst novel, and it not only makesyou want toreadthesecondone but togo " tell afriend about thefirst. PAT AUFDERHEIDE, Chicago Tribune " "A novel ofgreat warmth and tenderness. EDITH MILTON The New York Times Book Review ''A wonderfully vivid and compassionatefirst " novel. BOB HALL DAY, Cleveland Plain Dealer I 'A vibrant, bitter and successful first novel...the characters breathe with " force. .fine and painful. . ROY HOFFMAN The Philadelphia Inquirer 'A strong first novel marked by eloquently trimmed prose, great assurance, and uncom- " promising darkness. Kirkus Reviews MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE Also by Oscar Hijuelos Our House in the Last World (ip8^) LOVE OF FAUUAU •^TUAllV GlUOlft Copyright © ipSpby OscarHijuelos Allrightsreserved Printedin the UnitedStatesofAmerica Publishedsimultaneouslyin Canadaby CollinsPublishers, Toronto FirstEdition,1989 The author gratefully thanks the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Ingram Merrill Foundation,theAmericanAcademyandInstituteofArts andLetters,andtheMacDowellColony,forfellowshipsawarded during the period in which this novel was written. And heartfelt thanks to Angel Martinez, Renaldo Ferradas, Chico O'Farrill, and Harriet Wasserman. , . . with a flick of your wrist on your phonograph switch, the fiction of the roIHng sea and a dance date on a Havana patio or in a smart supper club will become reality. Certainly, ifyou cannotsparethetime to go to Havana or want to revive the memories of a previous trip, this music will make it all possible . . . FROM l^he Mambo Kings Flay Songs ofLove TMP 1113 Orchestra Records 1210 Lenox Avenue New York, New York 1957