Jessica

About the Book

The setting of the novel begins in Cuba as two young students realize their life-long dream of being physicians. Meanwhile, in New York, a catholic family’s tumultuous lives unravel as the teen-age daughter, Jessica, reveals that she might be pregnant. Her mother refuses to accept the pregnancy and concocts an illusory plan that lands the family in Cuba. Jessica is deceptively admitted to an abortion clinic. Soon the students begin their classes in Medical School where the encounter of their first cadaver takes them on an adventure, which intertwines their lives with that of the American family. The novel deals with a multitude of universally passionate emotions and sentiments set against the scenery of the pre-Castro Cuba of the 1940’s.

About the Author

Leopoldo Elio Ladaga was born in Havana, Cuba in 1929 where he attended catholic school and later graduated from the Medical School of Havana in 1954. He immigrated to the United States and practiced medicine as a pathologist in Norfolk, Virginia for over forty years. He was also a professor of pathology at Eastern Virginia Medical School. He was chief of the Pathology Department at Norfolk General Hospital and later became Director of the Laboratories for Sentara Hospitals. He also practiced forensic pathology for the Tidewater area of Virginia. He retired in 1996 and resides in Miami Beach with his wife, Adelaida.