Your Heart, My Sky: Love in a Time of Hunger

Your Heart My Sky is another novel in verse from Margarita Engle which follows two Cuban teens facing starvation during el period especial en temps de Paz -the special period in times of peace. The poems tell a story about what desperation will cause you to do, how each of us will respond to unimaginable challenges, and ultimately about love; for home or country, for family, for lovers, even for a singing dog.

I have read a lot of novels written in verse (seems to be a very popular genre lately) and sometimes it can be a very effective way to draw the reader into the protagonist’s thoughts and motivations in an intimate way, which would be difficult with other forms of literature. Unfortunately, I would have preferred this story to be told using prose because I craved so many details, although it would be hard to include the dog’s wise perspective that way which I did really enjoy.

I knew nothing about this time period in history and appreciated the author’s note at the end of the book filling in some details. Ultimately I found it hard to get into, occasionally difficult to follow, and less engaging than I had hoped. It might appeal more to a slightly older audience, who already have a sense of the time period and patience to re-read and think about each verse more thoughtfully.