Before Night Falls

Reinaldo Arenas · 1943–1990 · Cuba

Originally Antes que anochezca (Spanish) · translated by Dolores M. Koch

Why it matters

Dying of AIDS in New York, Arenas dictated his memoir into a tape recorder, tracing persecution, prison, and desire from Castro's Cuba to exile. A final act of defiance: his suicide note blamed the regime for his death.

At a glance

A frank, chronological memoir told in plain, urgent prose despite its harrowing content.