The Island That Dared: Journeys in Cuba - Couverture rigide

In her latest book the tireless Dervla Murphy, still travelling rough in her late seventies, sets out to get to grips with Cuba a place of impulsive friendship and impenetrable bureaucracy. --Telegraph.co.uk

There has always been a raw energy about her work that sets her apart from some of her paler contemporaries. Now in her mid-70s, she has written at least 25 books but, judging by this volume she's in no danger of mellowing ... Fierce, highly moral and uncompromising, this is classic Murphy. In an often anodyne world, she remains an original...she is a refreshingly defiant voice, straight-talking and no-nonsense. --Financial Times, November 2008

The three journeys in her latest book are explorations of [Cuba's] change... disquisitions on homophobia, attitudes to AIDS and much else, indicates that at 77, Murphy s status as one of our most respected travel writers shows no sign of weakening. Eland seems a natural home for her. --Geographical, December 2008

Take a three-generation family holiday in Cuba in the company of Dervla Murphy, her daughter and three young granddaughters and you have a Swallows and Amazon like adventure in the Caribean as they trek into the hills and along the coast as a family, camping out on empty beaches beneath the stars and relishing the ubiquitous Cuban hospitality. But this is no more than the joyful start of a fully-fledged quest to understand the unique society created by the Cuban Revolution. For Dervla returns alone to explore the mountains, coastal swamps and decaying cities, investigating the experience of modern Cuba with her particular, candid curiosity. Through her own research and through conversations with Fidelistas and their critics alike, The Island That Dared builds a complex picture of a people struggling to retain their identity in the face of insistent hostility of the government of the United States.