The Hidden Island

“Abraham Jiménez Enoa writes like an angel and has an impressively keen social radar…He’s an exceptional interlocutor, and, for readers of this unmissable book, he’s an empathic, sincere guide to his Cuba, a country as beautiful and beloved as it is sad and unjust.”—Jon Lee Anderson

The work of one of the most powerful voices in independent Cuban journalism, The Hidden Island is a searing portrait of life in contemporary Cuba, where the struggles of ordinary citizens collide with the brutal repression of the government. 

In this powerful collection of essays, we encounter a memorable and diverse cast of regular Cubans who are trying to survive with few resources and little hope—including a female boxer in a country that has long outlawed women’s boxing; a boy who collects money for the country’s underground lottery; a male gigolo, and the residents of a neighborhood that is so poor that the government doesn’t officially recognize its existence.

Author Abraham Jiménez Enoa juxtaposes these ordinary lives against the repressive tactics of the Cuban government, or “regime.” He describes his “walks” around Villa Marista, the headquarters of the secret police, and the spies, confidantes, informers and regime sympathizers who crush anyone who questions the official narrative, which forces many independent journalists into exile. In a final self-portrait in the book about his own exile, Jiménez Enoa writes that, “to escape from Cuba is to fall into the world, to realize that Cuba is an island that has been hijacked by a political system which ensures that the country remains locked inside the twentieth century.”

Abraham Jiménez Enoa is a freelance journalist and co-founder of the online narrative journalism magazine El Estornudo. He was a columnist for The Washington Post from 2019 to 2023, reporting from Cuba. In 2020, state security officers strip-searched and handcuffed him, interrogated him for five hours, and threatened him and his family over his writings about life in Cuba in his monthly Washington Post column. After being placed under house arrest, Abraham was allowed to leave Cuba for Spain in 2021, where he is currently living in exile. He is the author of two books, The Hidden Island, and Landing in the World,. In 2022,he received the Committee to Protect Journalism’s International Press Freedom Award for being a prominent outspoken voice within Cuba’s media community. Isla Familia, a documentary about his treatment by the Cuban authorities and his exile from the country, was released in 2024.

Jon Lee Anderson is a staff writer for The New Yorker. He has covered conflicts in numerous places for the magazine, including Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Angola, Somalia, Sudan, Mali, and Liberia. He has also reported frequently from Latin America, writing about Rio de Janeiro’s gangs, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, an isolated tribe in Peru’s Amazon, and a Caracas slum, among other subjects, and has written Profiles of Augusto Pinochet, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, and Gabriel García Márquez. His books include Che Guevara: A Revolutionary LifeGuerrillas, Journeys in the Insurgent World, The Fall of Baghdad and The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan.

Lily Meyer is a translator, critic, and author of the novel Short War. A contributing writer at The Atlantic, her translations include Claudia Ulloa Donoso’s story collections Little Bird and Ice for Martians. Her novel, The End of Romance, is forthcoming from Viking.