Mambo Kings author to pen companion novel, memoir
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 | 3:58 PM ET
CBC News
New York author Oscar Hijuelos is set to revisit the characters of his bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love in a new book and pen a memoir, his publishers announced Tuesday.
Hyperion Books and Gotham Books jointly announced two new projects in the works by the acclaimed Hispanic-American writer, the novel Beautiful Maria of My Soul and a memoir entitled Thoughts Without Cigarettes.
Actor Antonio Banderas, left, starred in a film version of Oscar Hijuelos' Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
(Stephen J. Boitano/Associated Press)
In Beautiful Maria, Hijuelos returns to the story of Mambo Kings' musician brothers Nestor and Cesar Castillo to tell of Nestor's great love and the woman who inspired their song Beautiful Maria of My Soul. The novel is slated for publication in 2009.
The author's memoir, set to emerge a year later, will reportedly include anecdotes from encounters with the likes of American rocker Lou Reed and Panamanian entertainer, attorney and politician Ruben Blades.
With the publication of Mambo Kings in 1989, Hijuelos, who was born in New York to Cuban immigrants, became the first Hispanic author to win the coveted Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
The story later inspired a feature film starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas, as well as a stage musical performed in New York.
Mambo Kings was Hijuelos' second novel, coming after his acclaimed debut, Our House in the Last World. His other credits include The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien, Mr. Ives' Christmas and Empress of the Splendid Season.
With files from the Associated PressShare Tools
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