TASCHEN Books: Inside Cuba. A jewel of the Caribbean: an in-depth pictorial highlighting contemporary Cuba and its coolest digs. Hardcover. 9.4 x 12.4 in. 416 pages.

Described by Christopher Columbus as "the loveliest land ever beheld by human eyes," Cuba's sumptuous landscapes are marked by sun-drenched tobacco and sugar cane fields and its cities ripe with music, dancing, and jubilation. Celebrating the relics of Cuba's revolutionary glory days, this book explores everything from the kinds of interiors seen in Buena Vista Social Club to top-notch luxury hotels and cultural heritage sites. Via a diverse selection of Cuban homes, hotels, gathering places, and more, Inside Cuba takes you on a colorful tour of Cuba's most archetypal interiors. Just mix up a Mojito, pop in a Compay Segundo CD, and fire up a cigar, and you'll be in the perfect mood to savor these luscious Cuban gems.

Highlights include:

traditional time-worn homes bearing the patina of generations of habitation

Modernist houses, including one by Richard Neutra, and artists' homes

Cuba's best eclectic 20th century mansions

a sugar baron's grandiose palacio

Partagas cigar factory, one of Havana's oldest and finest

the baroque building Palacio de los Capitanes Generales

the spectacular and futuristic Mario Girona-designed ice cream haven that is Havana's most popular hangout

a home with a Lalique-designed interior

the bars Ernest Hemingway frequented, the hotel where he stayed between 1932 and 1939, and the estate near Havana he purchased in 1940, where he wrote The Old Man and the Sea

Mafia casino hotels

Don Diego Velazquez's Moorish-influenced home where gold was once processed before being shipped to Spain



About the editor: Angelika Taschen studied art history and German literature in Heidelberg, gaining her doctorate in 1986. Working for TASCHEN since 1987, she has published numerous titles on architecture, photography, design, contemporary art, interiors, and travel.

About the photographer: Gianni Basso is specialized in travel photography, architecture, and interiors. In 1989, he founded the photography agency Vega MG. His work has been widely published in books and magazines. He lives in Milan.

About the author: Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez, Loeb Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design 2001 to 2002 and adjunct professor at the School of Architecture in Havana, has lectured widely in the US and Europe about Cuban architecture. He is a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba and the recipient of several international and national awards. His writings have been published in the New York Times, Arquitectura Cuba and Arquitectura y Urbanismo.