Ann Louise Bardach
Few on this side of the Florida Straits know Cuba better than Vicki Huddleston . . . She has written an extraordinary firsthand account and one that only an intrepid diplomat—
serving both Republican and Democratic presidents—could have experienced, and written.
Mitchell Kaplan
As someone who has lived most of my life in Miami, and who has seen the effect of US policy toward Cuba up close and very personal, I found Our Woman in Havana to be a remarkable inside account of the real news that was behind the headlines I’ve followed for years. As a bookseller, I know this book will be enthusiastically embraced by my customers and I look forward to offering it to them.””
Ambassador Joseph Wilson
Our Woman in Havana is a brilliant account of a diplomat’s challenges in formulating a sound policy consensus amid the shifting sands of domestic political, economic, and familial interests in Washington, Miami, and Havana. It is also an inspiring foreign service story of a diplomat abroad, charged with providing information and advice to Washington while advancing US policy objectives in an often hostile environment. . . . Anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of policy-making in Washington, and any young foreign service officer intrigued by worldly adventures will thoroughly enjoy Our Woman in Havana, written by one of this generation’s finest diplomats.””
Jon Lee Anderson
As one of America’s top Cuba hands, Huddleston has been a privileged eyewitness to key moments of history as well as backroom policy debates. Huddleston’s anecdotes of her life in Havana—everything from spy stories to an argument with Fidel she had at a cocktail party—are sometimes poignant, at other times hilarious, and always delightfully candid.
Culture Trip
Offering unparalleled insight from [Huddleston's] almost 20 years as ambassador,Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of America’s Long Struggle with Castro’s Cubareflects on politics and sexism in a changing global landscape.”
Santa Fe Reporter
During her time as the highest-ranking diplomat in Cuba, Vicki Huddleston faced down Fidel Castro at a party, provided thousands of otherwise isolated people with a way to learn more about the outside world, and won awards with an Afghan hound she named after the city of Havana—all while few women held positions of power within the State Department. . . . She's now on another diplomatic mission: to warn America about the danger of US policy towards Cuba. . . .Her memoir serves as a primer on recent history and points to bad omens of the past threatening to repeat themselves.
