"In this masterful ethnography, Heidi Harkonen weaves together discussions of the material conditions of post-Soviet era Cuba, critical moments in life such as coming of age, having children, and dying, and personal stories of kinship, love, and caring. In so doing, this book offers new perspectives on the issues of political economy, matrifocality and gender in the Caribbean, while relating these issues to global transformations of postcolonialism and postsocialism." - Kevin Birth, Professor of Anthropology at Queen's College, CUNY, USA and author of Objects of Time: How Things Shape Temporality

Kinship, Love, and Life Cycle in Contemporary Havana, Cuba is an ethnographic analysis of gender, kinship, and love in contemporary Cuba. The book documents how low-income Havana residents negotiate their social relations through gendered caring practices over the life cycle from birth to death.