Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Empress of the Splendid Season

Empress of the Splendid Season

Hijuelos, Oscar
Strout, Elizabeth

Paperback

Classic FictionGeneral FictionLiterary Fiction

Publisher Price: $18.99

ISBN10: 1538722216
ISBN13: 9781538722213
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: Oct 14 2025
Pages: 336
Weight: 0.63
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.33 Depth: 7.99
Language: English
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos brings the joys and heartbreaks of twentieth-century America vividly to life in this tender novel (New York Times Book Review).

Lydia España--once a wealthy, spoiled daughter of Cuba--works at a sewing factory in New York. Adjusting to her sharp change of circumstances, missing the days when her prosperous father provided her with every luxury, she ruminates on the incident that drove her away from her homeland in the late 1940s--until she falls in love with Raul, a kindhearted, working-class waiter who sees Lydia as the Queen of the Congo Line she used to be: the empress of the most beautiful and splendid season, which is love.

Despite their age difference, a loving marriage follows, as well as two children. Lydia revels in her newfound happiness, but when Raul's health declines, she finds her fortunes reversed yet again. Now working as a cleaning lady, Lydia can't help but contrast her experiences with those of her clients, whose secret lives and day-to-day realities are so starkly different from her own--but over time, the role may prove to be just what she needs to secure a better life for her children.

Written with absorbing, magnetic prose, this tenderly rendered novel follows a proud, hardworking woman through the ups and downs of her life. It is Hijuelos at his masterful best, a lasting and expert portrayal of the highs and lows of chasing--and living--the American Dream.

Includes a Reading Group Guide.

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