| has gloss | eng: :For the brachiopod genus, see Pentagonia (brachiopod). The Pentagonia or the "five agonies is the collective title of a series of five novels by Reinaldo Arenas, the Cuban writer. It was subtitled by its author "the secret history of Cuba." The novels were written from the mid 1960s through the late 1980s, and indeed, as was recounted in Arenas autobiography Before Night Falls, were rewritten many times as manuscripts were lost, destroyed and/or confiscated by Cuban authorities. Each of the novels is semi-autobiographical and indeed has Arenas as one, if not more than one, of the major characters. Book One The first volume Singing from the Well was originally published as Celestino antes del alba in 1967. It was the only Arenas novel to be published in Cuba The novel recounts the history of a young child, Celestino, growing up in Province of Oriente, Cuba. Celestino was a child that was ostracized by his family because of his literary talents (he would write on trees and in retaliation his grandfather denuded the forest). |