Growing up in Paris with an alcoholic mother, Delphine, was always told her father was Earnest Hemingway. When her mother dies, she goes to the US and stays with her mother’s friends in Harlem. She desperately wants to meet her father. Being an aspiring writer herself, she wants to write something that will impress him, so she works on her novel.
Eventually she leaves Harlem in search of Hemingway. She travels to Havana, Cuba where she meets Hemingway, but fails to take advantage of the encounter to explore their relationship. Leaving Havana abruptly, Delphine returns to Paris.
This is a coming of age story focusing on Delphine. The interaction with Hemingway is unsatisfactory. There is some historical background, but the story is all about Delphine. I thought she was a sympathetic character. I liked her determination. The author did a good job with the descriptions of the various places Delphine visits, they are evocative and made me feel as if I were there.
If you enjoy character driven fiction, I can recommend it.
Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for this review copy.
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