KARL ALEXANDER

In 1957 Cuba, Fidel Castro starts a revolution with twelve men while Papa Hemingway wonders if he’s washed up or has another book in him-the big book that’s always eluded him.

Looking for publicity, Fidel challenges Papa to come to the Sierra Maestra and write about the barbudos. Not one to turn down a shot at the proverbial fountain of youth, Papa accepts. The trip damn near kills him, but a special relationship begins. Fidel-young, ambitious, naïve. Papa-old, wise, cynical. They could’ve been father and son; they see each other in those terms.

Fidel takes Papa wingshooting, the first of their mano-a-manos. They run into Batista patrols. Superb under fire, Fidel saves Papa's life, the old man returning the favor years later when it matters more. The barbudos discover they’ve been compromised by an American volunteer, and he’s executed despite Papa warning Fidel of gringo public opinion. Castro never does learn how to separate justice from political expediency.

Soon, Papa realizes that Fidel is exactly like characters straight from the pages of his books which is why he both loves and hates him-like father, like favorite son. Rejuvenated after the Sierra Maestra, Papa starts the big book. And Fidel discovers guerrilla strategy and tactics in Papa's novels. He wins his first pitched battle using For Whom the Bells Tolls as a primer.

Both men are haunted by their mythic qualities. Papa knows the world sees him as larger than life-a hero always in control, always courageous, always a winner. He knows it’s bullshit, yet the only way he can measure up is to make the big book truer than truth, to go out in a blaze of glory. Fidel encourages him in exchange for advice on how to slug it out with Ike, Nixon and the big boys after Batista has been kayoed. Yes, Fidel’s trapped in myth, too. Ten million Cubans worship him, yet he had no idea how to run their country. Like God, he’s everywhere and nowhere.

Together, Papa and Fidel are mere mortals, always recognizing each other's strengths, weaknesses, habits, foibles. Fidel's 9-year-old son, Fidelito, is usually along for the ride, never taken for granted-it doesn’t matter if the guest of honor is Jean Paul Sartre or Anastas Mikoyan. With Papa as coach, the boy learns how to throw a fastball and change-up- a small triumph in the swirl of catastrophic events. The U.S. blockades Cuba, and the CIA begins a campaign of sabotage. The Cuban economy goes belly up, Fidel becomes the pariah of the western hemi-sphere, and Papa learns he’s dying. Yet neither relinquishes his personal courage, his basic humanity. Their lives swing from negotiating with the Russians to marlin fishing with Fidelito's little league championship game sandwiched in between. The one time politics actually intrudes, they end up at each other's throat in the midst of a huge barroom brawl at the Floridita.

Finally, Papa saves Fidel from an assassination attempt by the CIA, then retreats to Idaho to complete the big book. He finishes it just before the renegade CIA assassin comes for him, thirsting for revenge. Officially, he commits suicide; officially, there is no manuscript. Yet Fidel Castro knows better. Maybe to this day he wonders how Papa's big book judged him.

“Accomplished and readable.”

“Alexander, whose best-selling novel Time After Time brought H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper together, wonder what if Ernest Hemingway and Fidel Castro had become friends. In Papa & Fidel, he uses this premise not to rewrite history, but to explain events that actually happened. Hemingway is a macho old man, down but not out, using his friendship with the Cubans to write a final great novel. Castro is an idealist forced by the United States into a relationship with Russia that he neither wants nor can avoid. As events move both men on to their inevitable destinies, the author weaves fact and fantasy into a skillful climax that restores Hemingway’s dignity as it humanizes Castro. For public libraries.”

Papa Hemingway and Fidel Castro met once at a Cuban fishing tournament, but in Alexander’s wonderful adventure they develop a warm and plausible friendship. Worried that old age has robbed him of both his physical and mental powers, Papa embarks on a dangerous trek to find the leader of Cuba’s revolutionary movement. Upon meeting him, however, Papa doesn’t spare the ‘kid’ his skepticism. But Castro is impressed with the great writer, and even rereads For Whom the Bell Tolls to pick up military pointers before an attack. After the revolution, however, Castro is besieged by the duties of government and the attacks of U.S. backed subversives; his friendship with Papa changes. The relationship isn’t a secret to Castro’s enemies, who train their sights on Papa in an ending that carries an awful ring of reality. But politics is strictly a backdrop in this fast-paced, fascinating story of men under pressure by the author of Time After Time. As Papa might have said, "it’s a damn good book.”