The Sugar King of Havana: The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo, Cuba's Last Tycoon Tapa dura - 2010

"The Sugar King of Havana is a picture postcard in print, an elegant and perceptive tale of life on a star-crossed island. ... [Rathbone] has a keen eye for the sounds, sights and smells of Cuba."
-Christian Science Monitor

"Fascinating... Mr. Rathbone tells the story of prerevolutionary Cuba through the prism of the man who was once known as the Sugar King. ... [H]e gives us a richly detailed portrait of this complicated, conflicted man while deftly weaving a thumbnail history of modern Cuba into Lobo's story."
-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"In this splendid, engagingly written book, Rathbone makes Lobo come alive in the context of Cuba's booms and busts up until Castro's revolution."
-Financial Times

"An entertaining biography that is also a portrait of Cuba between the island's independence in the late 19th century and Fidel Castro's march into Havana in January 1959."
-The Wall Street Journal

"Splendid... Rathbone's nuanced blending of familial and national history lend this work poignancy and depth."
-Ann Louise Bardach, The Washington Post

"Wide-ranging life of a Cuban Croseus and a graceful history of the island during the last century...Lively, well written...."
-Kirkus Reviews

"[THE SUGAR KING OF HAVANA] restores a realistic sense of what 1950s Cuba was like, including the guarded optimism with which many upper-crust Cubans such as Lobo initially viewed Castro's seizing of power. Rathbone's care with social atmosphere lifts his portrayal of Lobo above the usual life-of-a-tycoon and enriches the historical understanding of readers contemplating post Castro Cuba."
-Booklist

"The Sugar King of Havana is a remarkable book. On the one hand, John Paul Rathbone has written the extraordinary life story of Cuba 's late sugar baron Julio Lobo. Set against the epic sweep of Cuba 's revolutionary history, this is also a deeply personal family memoir that clears a pathway to a part of Cuba 's wounded soul. Beautifully written; a stunning achievement."
-Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che and The Fall of Baghdad

"This is a riveting story that goes well beyond traditional biography. In telling the tale of Cuban sugar magnate, Julio Lobo-sophisticated, complex, obsessive, a collector of Napoleon memorabilia and Hollywood starlets, as well as a ruthless businessman-Mr. Rathbone illuminates the extraordinary history of Cuba itself, and the many worlds that evaporated with the onset of Castro's revolution."
-Cristina Garcia, author of Dreaming in Cuban and The Lady Matador's Hotel

"At long last: a book that does not glorify the Cuba of the 1950's or romanticize the terrible and ineffective government that tried to erase it from memory."
-Mirta Ojito, author, Finding Manana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus

"This magnificently written book is much more than an account of the life of a singular personage: it is a fascinating portrait of an era by now unknown even to the Cubans themselves. Whoever wishes to know what the island was like before the revolution must read this work."
-Carlos Alberto Montaner, author of Journey to the Heart of Cuba

"This beautifully written, deeply felt biography of Cuba's most important sugar capitalist looks to the past-into national and family history-almost as if to meditate on Cuba's future, and accomplishes this with wonderful detail, nuance and balance. A fascinating and unexpectedly original story of Cuba."
-Francisco Goldman, novelist and author of The Art of Political Murder