Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause

Tom Gjelten

Aug 2017 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Robertson Dean

About this audiobook

In this widely hailed book, NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten fuses the story of the Bacardi family and their famous rum business with Cuba's tumultuous experience over the last 150 years to produce a deeply entertaining historical narrative. The company Facundo Bacardi launched in Cuba in 1862 brought worldwide fame to the island, and in the decades that followed his Bacardi descendants participated in every aspect of Cuban life. With his intimate account of their struggles and adventures across five generations, Gjelten brings to life the larger story of Cuba's fight for freedom, its tortured relationship with America, the rise of Fidel Castro, and the violent division of the Cuban nation.

Ratings and reviews

Fascinating interwoven history of both Cuba and the Bacardi family! Occasionally so many characters in the family that it’s difficult to follow all of them at times but a minor inconvenience in a fantastically well researched, well told and compelling story. My kudos to Mr. Gjelten.

About the author

Tom Gjelten is a veteran correspondent for National Public Radio on international issues and a regular panelist on the PBS program Washington Week. His reporting from Bosnia won him George Polk and Robert F. Kennedy awards. He is the author of Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his family.