This week, seven-time novelist Cristina Garcia joins the GrottoPod to discuss the evolution of both her best-selling debut novel Dreaming in Cuban (1992) and herself, tracking her path from Havana to the Bay Area (with stops in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Frankfurt), from would-be Pampers marketer to Time magazine bureau chief to best-selling author to playwright. Along the way, she discusses stories that cannot be told through journalism; what brought her to Berlin for her latest book, Here in Berlin; how good timing helped make Dreaming in Cuban a literary sensation; Fidel Castro’s basketball obsession and what happens when your mother insists you get your hair done for the national book awards ceremony.