The Eternal Forest: A Memoir of the Cuban Diaspora (St. Martin’s Press) by Elena Sheppard traces three generations of the author’s family, documenting their politically motivated escape from Cuba to their settlement in Miami and ultimately New York City. Told with unflinching honesty, Sheppard draws on more than dry data to populate the world of the memoir: rich swathes of Cuban literature, art, and folklore are made accessible to the reader, too. In so doing, the writer calculates the unmitigated costs of exile to diaspora Cubans, and to her family specifically.