Cuba: An American History (Scribner) by Ada Ferrer is an epic account of the centuries-long relationship between the Caribbean’s largest island and its powerful neighbour to the north, “written for a moment that demands a new reckoning.” Cuba-born Ferrer, now a professor of history at New York University, “provides us with a front-row seat as we witness the evolution of the modern nation, with its dramatic record of conquest and colonisation, of slavery and freedom, of independence and revolutions made and unmade.”