A Planet for Rent

In his bestselling A Planet for Rent, Yoss critiques ‘90s Cuba by drawing parallels with a possible Earth of the the not-so-distant future. Wracked by economic and environmental problems, the desperate planet is rescued, for better or worse, by alien invaders, who remake the planet as a tourist destination. Ruled over by a brutal interstellar bureaucracy, dispossessed humans seek better lives via the few routes available — working for the colonial police; eking out a living as black marketeers, drug dealers, or artists; prostituting themselves to exploitative extraterrestrial visitors — or they face the cold void of space in rickety illegal ships. This inventive and raucous book marks the English-language debut of an astonishingly brave and imaginative Latin American voice.