Cuba most readily elicits images of sun-drenched tourist destinations at affordable prices, Cuban cigars, Castro and communism. Nancy Alonso's book, Closed for Repairs, a collection of short stories, concerns itself with none of these. Rather, Closed for Repairs offers the reader glimpses of the lives of ordinary Cuban citizens.

The Spanish edition of the book, Cerrado por reparacion, was published in Havana, Cuba in 2003 by Ediciones Union and won Nancy Alonso the Alba de Cespedes prize for feminist fiction. A teacher of physiology with a background in biological science, she is one of Cuba's most acclaimed writers of short stories. Her first book of stories, Tirar la primera piedra (Casting the First Stone) was published in 1997. She has been anthologized in the volumes of Estatuas de Sal (1996), Rumba senza palme nee carezze (1996), and Cubana (1998). Curbstone Press brings us the English translation by Anne Fountain, coordinator of Latin American Studies at San Jose State University and professor of Latin American literature and culture.

Many of us, myself included, know little about Cuba aside from what we hear in the media. Unfortunately, for economic and political reasons, much of what we hear, especially from American media, is usually negative. While Canada's relationship with Cuba is less strained, much of what we hear tends still to be influenced by American views. I was pleasantly surprised recently by a couple of very interesting and largely positive and inspiring stories about Cuba on CBC's "Dispatches," including a report by Connie Watson on an American woman getting a free medical education in Cuba. But most often, what we hear is about Castro, communism, State oppression and poverty.

Anne Fountain's translation of Closed for Repairs offers English readers a welcome alternative view. Alonso has provided us with eleven windows into Cuban life, eleven short stories told in a simple and unassuming style as if we were merely sitting around the dining room table listening to family members recount how they encountered complicated and often difficult situations and circumstances, handling them with ingenuity and resourcefulness.