Beyond This Vale of Tears

The decades after his migration from Cuba in October of 1962 had helped to block out the horrific realities of the revolution, but not the sadness and unrest he still experienced. From childhood and through his adult life, Maximo Gomez questioned what his life was meant for, and not receiving an answer, he found peace only in retreat and solitude. In September of 1997, as he grieved his father's death, he received an otherworldly commission from his ancestors to pen down his family's history. A story that would span almost one hundred years, forcing him to relive the anguish and despair of every generation he uncovered. During his quest, Maximo Gomez returned to Cuba, wrote letters to the Vatican and genealogical societies in Spain. Curiously, and yet cautiously, the author moved through a maze of politics, affluence, betrayal, death and privation that he later came to recognize as a journey of rediscovery. In this dramatized, often funny historical fiction, Max Gomez puts his phantoms to rest, finding the door of reconciliation between his future and his past.