Retired English Professor Publishes Her Second Book—The Tilting House

Thirteen years ago, as Ivonne Lamazares stared at her mother’s grave marker in Cuba, she found the serenity that eluded her since Mercedes Fernandez’s passing nearly five decades ago.

The moment of introspection, as she contemplated the mom she lost when she was an infant, sparked the theme for her second book—coming to peace with your past. 

”I was finally able to embody those feelings that I had all along,” Lamazares said.

The Tilting House, a story about family, revenge and identity—originally titled The House of Ruth—hit shelves on July 22. It comes 25 years after her first novel The Sugar Island. 

On July 25, Books & Books in Coral Gables served as the first leg of a book tour that will include stops in New York, Gainesville, New Jersey, Tallahassee and Orlando. 

“It’s quite a novel…makes us very proud to present someone like this,” said Cristina Nosti, director of events & programming at Books & Books.  “[Seeing] young people react to the authors and to what they’re hearing never ceases to be magical.”

Set in the 1990s, the novel takes place in a fictional suburb—Paladero—in Havana, Cuba. It follows the life of Yuri, a teenager living with her strict and religious aunt Ruth in the midst of the country’s worst economic crisis.

During the upheaval, she comes face to face with Mariela, a 34-year-old artist who claims to be her sister. Mariela, who spent the last three decades in the United States, said Ruth banished her from the Caribbean country when she was four through Operation Pedro Pan, a program that sent more than 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children to America.

“It was interesting to write about a different period of time in Cuban history that I didn’t live through,” said the 63-year-old Lamazares. “I migrated when I was 13…so I write from that kind of place of disorientation and trauma, but also freedom and possibility.”

The book takes off when Mariela, who spent her childhood in American orphanages, attempts to exact her revenge on Ruth. Yuri is stuck between loving and loathing her older sister. 

The novel is full of betrayal, homesickness and broken family ties.

“[Ivonne] is able to express these two sisters’ struggle, in the backdrop of the immigration at the same time,” said Mitchell Kaplan, founder of Books & Books. “It’s very compelling.”

Lamazares took a decade to finish The Tilting House because she was focused on her teaching career at Miami Dade College that lasted more than three decades. But after she retired in 2023, the former English professor, who taught at Kendall and Hialeah campuses, was able to tackle the book full-time. 

Her husband, Steve Kronen, a poet and a retired MDC librarian, helped her massage the final draft so she could complete the 304-page novel.

The book is receiving positive press from WLRN the Associated Press and a 4.75 star rating (out of 5) on the popular literature website goodreads.com.

“Her writing is not only transformative but it will transport you to different places,” said Preston Allen, a South Florida author of eight novels.

The Tilting House is available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Books & Books, Indiebound and Books-A-Million.

Click here to subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter, The Hammerhead. For news tips, contact us at mdc.thereporter@gmail.com.