The Last Raft, Paperback/John H. Cunningham

Five desperate people flee Cuba aboard a homemade raft following an exodus of a hundred thousand countrymen. Oblivious to escalating geopolitical hostilities; American senators who want to preserve the decades-old embargo and oppose the President's desire to embrace change; and the civil unrest brewing ahead, the rafters risk their lives to change their lives. Juan initiates the journey, selling lies to convince the others to join him on the raft. Senator Spinelli manipulates the emotions of Cuban American dreamers for self-enrichment and power. With his strategy-savvy Chief of Staff Terri Turner, President Winslow risks the pinnacle of success to change the future. Fidel Castro is a double-dealing despot who will burn the house down around himself in revenge for the exodus. Their collective desperation is woven into a complicated yet beautiful imbroglio of faith, dreams and desire that in the end will unite or destroy them all.