Ruins was selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program.

“Daring, tough, and deeply compassionate, Achy Obejas’s Ruins is a breathtaker. Obejas writes like an angel, which is to say: gloriously . . . one of Cuba’s most important writers.”
—Junot Díaz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

“In the Havana of Ruins, scarcity can only be fought with ingenuity, and the characters work very hard at the exquisite art of getting by. The plot rests on the schemes of its weary, obsessive, dreamy hero—a character so brilliantly drawn that he can’t be dismissed or forgotten. A tender and wildly accurate portrait, in a gem of a novel.”
—Joan Silber, author of The Size of the World

“Usnavy, a man of tender resolve who wants only to do his part as a good revolutionary . . . is nimbly drawn, with genuine depth . . . endearing, sad and funny.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Obejas evinces a new, focused lyricism as she penetrates to the very heart of the Cuban paradox in a story as pared down and intense as its narrator’s life.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“Compassionate and intriguing . . . Obejas plays out [the book’s] conflicts in measured, simple prose, allowing her descriptions of the mundane—houses, food, dominoes—to illuminate a setting filled with heartbreak, confusion and decay . . . At her best, Obejas controls the mixture of humor and pathos that suffuse this poor community.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Ruins is a beautifully written novel, a moving testament to the human spirit of an unlikely hero who remains unbroken even as the world collapses around him . . . A fine literary achievement, it’s Achy Obejas at her very best.”
—El Paso Times

“[A] superb novel . . . Highly recommended.”
—Library Journal

“[An] honest and superbly written book.”
—Miami Herald

“With the deft and evocative detail of a poet’s, Obejas’s prose is as illuminating and honest as her struggling protagonist.”
—Publishers Weekly