Eli Cooper is a resolutely single, fiftysomething newspaper copy editor. He spends his nights obsessing over reporters' unnecessary 'thats' and his days caring for a demented father he knows should be in twenty-four-hour care. Eli is too busy -- and too self-absorbed -- to acknowledge what's missing in his life. But then, on a single day in February 2008, Eli loses his job and his father. Alone and adrift, he begrudgingly accepts his sister's gift: a two-week forget-it-all vacation to Cuba. After a series of misadventures, he meets Mariela -- an off-the-books, thirtysomething tour guide -- and falls in love. But does Mariela fall for Eli, or is he just her ticket to a new life? Eli and Mariela each have secrets they're not ready to share -- until they have no choice. A bittersweet story that takes readers from Havana, to Halifax, to Miami, and back again, The Sweetness in the Lime is a charming, clever novel that peels back the rind to discover there really is sweetness in the lime of life.