A gifted pianist. A divided family. A love that may never return. Before the Cuban Revolution changed the island forever, young Milagros discovered her love for music while attending glamorous parties at Havana's legendary Hotel Nacional. Easy-going, warm, and quick with humor, she charms those around her as easily as she captivates them at the piano. By the age of fifteen, her extraordinary talent earns her a place in a professional band, launching her into Havana's vibrant world of music and entertainment. Soon she is performing for foreign dignitaries and traveling across the Communist bloc, bringing her gift-and her joyful spirit-to audiences far from home. But while her career rises, the world she loves begins to unravel.

One by one, members of her family leave Cuba for a new life in the United States. When Milagros falls deeply in love with a man from Czechoslovakia, she faces an impossible choice: follow the man she loves or remain with the family she cannot abandon. Inspired by true events, Memoirs of a Pianist is a moving story of music, sacrifice, exile, and enduring love. Betty Viamontes is the award-winning author of Waiting on Zapote Street.