America, the ?last world?, holds out many promises to the Santinio family from Cuba. For Alejo, the father, it means escape from the farm in San Pedro and, perhaps, a business of his own. For Mercedes, his wife, America is the last of the material worlds. Still, she has other lives and will live again after her death. For the sons, Horacio and Hextor, the ?last world? is not only New York, but also Cuba ? a place of sensuous beauty, fragrance and memories. The first novel by the author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Our House in the Last World is a work of beauty about people stranded between two cultures