{"product_id":"empress-of-the-splendid-season","title":"Empress of the Splendid Season","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos brings the joys and heartbreaks of twentieth-century America vividly to life\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLydia 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 Conga Line” she used to be: the empress of \"the most beautiful and splendid season, which is love.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDespite 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten 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.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOscar Hijuelos (1951–2013), a native New Yorker and the son of Cuban immigrants, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of nine novels and a memoir and a recipient of the Rome Prize awarded by The American Academy of Arts and Letters. He also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He became the first Latino winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1990 for his international bestseller \u003cem\u003eThe Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love\u003c\/em\u003e and his novels have been translated into more than 40 languages.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Grand Central Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47173477236893,"sku":"9781538722213","price":104.5,"currency_code":"MYR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0511\/7575\/1837\/files\/9781538722213.jpg?v=1763115447","url":"https:\/\/mphonline.com\/products\/empress-of-the-splendid-season","provider":"MPHOnline.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}