The Sweetness in the Lime

"Part love story, part mystery, this engrossing tale of Cuban-Canadian connections . . . gets to the heart of what can happen when we cross borders." --Karen Dubinsky, author of Cuba Beyond the Beach   Eli Cooper is a resolutely single, fifty-something newspaper copy editor. He spends his nights obsessing over reporters' unnecessary "thats" and his days caring for a demented father he knows should be in twenty-four-hour care. Eli is too...
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"Part love story, part mystery, this engrossing tale of Cuban-Canadian connections . . . gets to the heart of what can happen when we cross borders." --Karen Dubinsky, author of Cuba Beyond the Beach
 
Eli Cooper is a resolutely single, fifty-something newspaper copy editor. He spends his nights obsessing over reporters' unnecessary "thats" and his days caring for a demented father he knows should be in twenty-four-hour care. Eli is too busy--and too self-absorbed--to acknowledge what's missing in his life.
 
But then, on a single day in February 2008, Eli loses his job and his father. Alone and adrift, he begrudgingly accepts his sister's gift: a two-week forget-it-all vacation to Cuba. After a series of misadventures, he meets Mariela--an off-the-books, thirtysomething tour guide--and falls in love. But does Mariela fall for Eli, or is he just her ticket to a new life? Eli and Mariela each have secrets they're not ready to share--until they have no choice.
 
A bittersweet story that takes readers from Havana, to Halifax, to Miami, and back again, The Sweetness in the Lime is a charming, clever novel that peels back the rind to discover there really is sweetness in the lime of life.
 
"A quietly powerful novel--poignant with the sorrow of great loss, uplifting with the joy of discovery." --The Miramichi Reader
 
"A tense, honest and moving tale of latter-life love in the time of post-colonial globalization. You won't want to put it down." --Chris Benjamin, author of Boy With a Problem
 
"A story about home, friendship, loss and new beginnings; about second chances and the power of loyalty and abiding love." --Carmen Rodríguez, author of Atacama