The first new English translation in sixty years of the most important Cuban novelist of the twentieth century's rousing historical novel about a French pirate who led the campaign to take back the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe from the British, featuring a new foreword by Alejandro Zambra A Penguin Classic A swashbuckling tale set in the Caribbean at the time of the French Revolution, Explosion in a Cathedral focuses on Victor Hugues, a historical figure who led the naval assault to take back the island of Guadeloupe from the English at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In Carpentier's telling, this piratical character walks into the lives of the wealthy orphans Esteban and Sofia and casts them abruptly into the midst of the immense changes sweeping the world outside their Havana mansion.