TWAIN AND STANLEY ENTER PARADISE, the impeccably researched final novel from the author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, follows famed 19th century journalist-explorer Henry Stanley, his wife, the painter Dorothy Tennant, and Stanley’s long friendship with Mark Twain, as they venture to Cuba in search of Stanley’s father. Told through a fictitious manuscript and imagined correspondence between Stanley, Tennant, and Twain, Hijuelos captures not only the general style of educated 19th century, but manages to pull off the seemingly impossible task of channelling Mark Twain himself.

The manuscript–in the works for decades–was found, whole and finished, by Hijuelos’s widow after his death.

As a companion to the novel, an ebook will be released of Hijuelos’ short story Another Spaniard in the Works about a musician who meets John Lennon. In the ‘60s, Lennon had published a book of humorous writings and drawings called A Spaniard in the Works and now Hijuelos brings Lennon to life through music and literature.