Cruz's play Two Sisters and a Piano (Theatre Communications Group, 2004) is set in 1991 as the fall of the Soviet Union further isolates Cuba politically and culturally. The two sisters of the play's title - one is a writer and the other is a musician - are placed under house arrest after spending time in prison for signing a manifesto against the current regime (though Cruz's characters never mention Castro by name). The sisters realize that, if they are to endure their sentence, they must redeem themselves through art.

Many critics and lay readers alike consider Anna Karenina (first published in parts from 1875 to 1877) to be one of the best novels ever written. In describing the life of his troubled heroine, Leo Tolstoy also provides the reader with a sweeping portrait of nineteenth-century Russian society as it moves from a feudal...