Fearful Breakers

Home. It’s all José has ever cared about.

It’s the middle of the 18th century, and José Albañez is a mixed-race boy living amidst his extensive family and friends in Havana, the capital of the Spanish colony of Cuba. As a boy in school, all he wants is to work side-by-side with his father in their joiner’s shop.

Somehow his Tío Domingo arranges for him to accompany him on his dangerous smuggling ventures among the islands. Along the way he is exposed to a wider and more challenging world, from the Jewish merchant community of Jamaica to the flagrant contraband trade of Santo Domingo and San Domingue. And in 1762, the British make plans to take Cuba and so put his beloved home at risk.

Follow José’s adventures in this immersive novel of historical fiction and explore Cuba, where people of color formed a thriving middle-class, Jamaica where Jews were part of the fabric of the island’s society, and San Domingue where mounted black policemen flashed their sabers.