Walking to Guantanamo

Walking to Guantánamo, to be published in September 2008, is an unusual view of the Cuban countryside (and of Cuban society) far from Havana. Its distinction lies in its motivation. As opposed to so much writing on Cuba, it was neither ideological nor even memorial. Rather, it was a curious (some would say idiosyncratic) desire by a non-Cuban with no other manifest ties to the country to walk, for reasons of his own and unrelated to grander concerns of geopolitics, from one end of the island to the other.It is precisely this uncommon inspiration and viewpoint that makes Richard Fleming's first work so convincing and even moving. Walking to Guantánamo is a wonderfully written (and, more often than not, very funny) chronicle that brings to life the country s genuine musical traditions (as opposed to the clichés that have arisen in the last decade in the wake of the Buena Vista Social Club), its religious syncretism, and exceptional indeed for a book on Cuba its ecology. Richard is a birder, and one of the most captivating qualities of his book is his rare focus on the island s wildlife and environment.