Cristina García's debut novel Dreaming in Cuban (1992) follows the stories captured in the diary of the protagonist Pilar. Readers are privy to Pilar's internal thoughts as she and her family face the challenges of a family torn between two countries when Pilar's parents emigrate to New York to escape the Castro regime. The novel covers the emotional effects on her parents, herself, and her siblings, as well as on her relatives who remain in Cuba.

Playing with Light (2000) is Rivera's second novel, in which her central theme explores the pitfalls of human vice and the redemptive power of literature. When Rebecca, the protagonist, tries to bring a group of her women friends together in a reading group, they experience strange time warps. This contemporary group of women reads a book set in the late nineteenth century about a...