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It’s 1949, and two young Cuban musicians make their way from Havana to the grand stage of New York City. It is the era of mambo, and the Castillo brothers, workers by day, become stars of the dance halls by night, where their orchestra plays the lush, sensuous, pulsing music that earns them the title "Mambo Kings." This is their moment of youth, exuberance, love, and freedom―a golden time that decades later is remembered with nostalgia and deep affection. Oscar Hijuelos’s portrait of the Castillo brothers, their families, their fellow musicians and lovers, and their triumphs and tragedies recreates the sights and sounds of an era in a richly textured narrative that pulses with the rhythms of mambo and the heartbeat of the American Dream.