Oscar Hijuelos was fascinated by the 37-year friendship between famed writer and humorist Mark Twain and legendary explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley. So he began researching and writing a novel that used the scant historical record of their relationship as a starting point for a more detailed fictional account. It was a labor of love for Hijuelos, who worked on the project for more than 10 years and was still revising the manuscript the day before his sudden passing in 2013. The resulting novel blends correspondence, memoir and third-person omniscience to explore the intersection of these Victorian giants in a long-vanished world.

TWAIN & STANLEY ENTER PARADISE, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos, is a luminous work of fiction inspired by the real-life, 37-year friendship between two towering figures of the late 19th century, famed writer and humorist Mark Twain and legendary explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley.

Born to Cuban immigrants in 1951, Oscar Hijuelos introduces readers to the colorful circumstances of his upbringing. The son of a Cuban hotel worker and exuberant poetry-writing mother, his story, played out against the backdrop of a working-class neighborhood, takes on an even richer dimension when his relationship with his family and culture changes forever.