Hi everyone!I'm working for a Russian website dedicated to children's books and children's reading Papmambook.ru. We've been building the English version of the website. We are proud that a lot of our reviewers are teenagers. Here's what one of them had to say about Everyone leaves . The author talks about how the book shows the inability of people to be their true selves under an oppressive regime.

The book has 2 parts: the diary of a joung girl (7-15 years old) the diary of a teeanage girl (16-19 years old). I really enjoyed reading it!

This was a surprising book, difficult and sad but interesting at the same time. I am not a fan of journals but somehow this one manage to keep me intrigued. I'm glad that I was able to finish it and the end, somehow did not surprise me at all.

A perplexing and fascinating insightinto life in Cuba for a young girl growing up among the artists. The poverty and privations are not overlooked or downplayed, but they are simply facts of how she lived.Falling in love provides a brief respite, since he is a successful artist, but when opportunity opens, he, too, is gone.Finally snow falls in Havana and Nieve finally feels at home.

Frickin' amazing.

I am nearly done with this book. Loving it. It feels authentic and the voice is there, speaking as I am reading. I've just ordered a couple of DVDs and books about CUBA; I need to learn more.But back to Everyone Leaves. It's a heartbreaking story about a young girl who is torn away from her mother. My sense is the father still loves the mother, but because of political differences their paths have separated. That a little girl live Nieve could be so mistreated and abused and nothing was ever don...

There is a general rule of thumb that if you make it (100-your age) pages into a book, and you aren't captivated, you should give up, given that life and the number of books you'll be able to read in yours is finite, and you shouldn't waste your time on books that aren't grabbing you. This one isn't. It looked good; I enjoy reading memoirs and autobiographical fiction by women from backgrounds different from my own, I've barely read anything by Cuban authors, but this was dull. It didn't give an...

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Beautiful book, an insight of the Cuba of the revolution from the point of view of a growing girl.

In the opening of Juan Gabriel Vásquez’ last novel “Volver la vista artrás” Colombian film maker Sergio Cabrera and his son take in the premier of his latest movie “Todos se van (Everyone Leaves).” A few weeks ago I watched it on my library film service, and then found the English translation at my library.Wendy Guerra tells the painful breakup of the parents of nine-year old Cuban girl, Nieve, through her diary. The time period is 1979-1980, twenty years after the revolution. Her mother, whose

Excellent book and a great review of a child growing up in post revolution Cuba. A must read and hoping that more of the authors books are translated to English as Achy Obejas does a wonderful jobs in keeping the grammar correct in the translation.

An intimate account of growing up in the '70s and '80s during the Cuban revolution.

I read this in Spanish: Todos se Van. It was an accurate retelling of what Cubans went through during the early days of the revolution. Luckily I left in 1960 so I missed all that and was not trapped in the island like the young protagonist, Nieve (Snow) a not very appropriate name she hated.

I read this book after hearing Alan Cheuse's review on NPR's All Things Considered. He is more insightful than I. Read his review.This novel is part autobiography and part fiction. I leave it up to you to figure how much is real. In diary form, it paints a picture of a small part of Cuba in the seventies and eighties seen through the eyes of girl from age 8 to young adulthood. Guerre hints at the reality of an aging Revolution rather than describes it. The reader has to read between the lines to...

Well-written, easy to read, but perhaps my expectations were too high.

Interesting read about the current situation of an island whose population has been oppressed for almost six decades. The first part, which is expressed from the point of view of a young girl, is simple and depicts her world through the eyes and innocence of a child. The second part, as written from the view point of a young woman, denotes her coming of age and the bitter fact of living among those who've stayed behind on an island surrounded by squalor, disillusionment and hopelessness where th...

This was my read the world selection for Cuba.The book is a series of diary entries by Nieve. In the first part of the book, Nieve is about 10, living in Cienfuegos and is torn between her parent’s turbulent relationship. The second part of the book takes place 6-7 years later after Nieve and her mother have moved to Havana and Nieve is attending an art school. Her diary chronicles a difficult and quite transient feeling life, despite Nieve feeling like she is not going anywhere and everyone els...

Wonderful story of a woman's rise to adulthood in Cuba during the late 70s, 80s and 90s. As a young child, her parents divorce and the mother marries a Swede. The father is able to fight in court to get custody of her and he beats, starves, and fails to send her to school regularly. Eventually she allowed to go back to her mother but quickly sent to a reeducation school. Later she is sent to military school and when she is 18, leaves mom for a boyfriend. People leave in droves for the US and Eur...

Wendy Guerra is the first Cuban author I've ever read so far, and I thoroughly enjoyed it - not only does she scatter Cuban artists (music, poetry) in her diary, but she also gives passage to wild, authentic thoughts as a child always on the move, with a broken family. It's captivating to see her transformation through adolescence, and how she tries to understand herself through her writing, but also Che Guevara's influences in Cuba. I felt the end was too rushed, and abrupt, maybe, but neverthe...

The book is basically a child girl's diary in the first half, and a teenage girl's diary in the second part. It has very short and succinct chapters that are easy to read. The story itself is good, nothing spectacular and majestic, just a regular girl's life in communist Cuba. The last chapters get somehow lyrical and a bit erotic, which worked for me. A great book.