A Girl Named Polina

By: Betty Viamontes

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

From the author of the award-winning Waiting on Zapote Street comes a powerful, multigenerational novel of secrets, separation, and survival in revolutionary Cuba.

On the night of September 15, 1961, the emergency room of Havana’s La Covadonga Hospital overflows as two women give birth within hours of each other. Andrea, a frightened teenage mother, and Maritza, a married woman rooted in her homeland, share more than a crowded hospital—they are bound by a secret neither of them yet understands.

Forced by circumstance to flee Cuba alone, Andrea immigrates to the United States, leaving her newborn daughter behind. Maritza remains on the island with her child, Polina, determined to shield her from the growing turmoil as Cuba’s political, social, and economic fabric unravels. Alongside her husband, Tomás, she hides the regime’s brutal realities—despite warnings from the outspoken grandmother Reimunda, who believes that silence carries its own danger.

But Polina is growing up in a world built on omissions. As she forges her own path, she begins to uncover not only the truth about her country, but the deeply buried family secrets that have shaped her life—and the lives of those who came before her.

A haunting exploration of motherhood, exile, and the cost of hidden truths, this novel reveals how history echoes across generations.