A classic of modern literature, Paradiso was first published in Cuba in 1966 and quickly hailed as a masterpiece by such eminent writers as Julio Cort zar and Mario Vargas Llosa. Written by Cuba's most important poet, it tells the story of Jos Cem , who, in the wake of his father's premature death, comes of age in turn-of-the-century Cuba, "an island paradise where magic and philosophy twist the lives of the old Cuban bourgeoisie into extravagant...