Eye of the Storm Earns Two 2026 International Latino Book Awards
Charles Gomez’s debut novel blends psychological realism and Afro-Cuban Santeria in a six-decade Cuban American family
Press Release Disclaimer: This is a press release distributed through the XPR Media network. It has not been independently verified by our newsroom.
Charles Gomez’s debut novel blends psychological realism and Afro-Cuban Santeria in a six-decade Cuban American family saga.
NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, October 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Eye of the Storm (Second Edition) by Charles Gomez has received two honors from the International Latino Book Awards: the Isabel Allende Most Inspirational Fiction Book of 2026 Gold Medal and Best Fiction Book 2026 in Magic Realism. The novel follows a Cuban American family through six turbulent decades, bringing emotional upheaval and literal hurricanes into a saga concerned with faith, survival, madness, and forgiveness.
Its narrator, Lazaro Lopez, is a retired reporter confronting buried childhood trauma. His account places the lasting consequences of those experiences at the center of a multigenerational timespan. Across the family’s struggles, the question is not simply whether people survive a storm, but how they live with what it leaves behind. Lazaro’s journey ultimately moves from vengeance toward understanding and the possibility of forgiveness.
Gomez brings psychological realism together with Afro-Cuban Santeria mysticism, a combination he identifies as central to the novel’s character. The psychological and spiritual elements offer two connected dimensions of the family story rather than separate promotional labels. For readers interested in magic realism, that interplay is a defining feature of the book, alongside its sustained attention to trauma and its Cuban American family perspective.
Charles Gomez, known professionally as Chuck Gomez during his local television news career, wrote the novel to explore how people survive trauma when life has broken them. That purpose gives the six-decade narrative a focus beyond the succession of hardships its characters encounter. The book’s concern with survival includes the difficult relationship between past injury and a response to it, with Lazaro’s eventual turn toward understanding giving specific expression to its theme of forgiveness.
The author identifies readers affected by childhood trauma, mental illness, domestic violence, murder, elder abuse, and homophobia among those he hopes to reach. These are serious concerns, and his stated readership reflects the human difficulties he wants the novel to address. The book offers a fictional exploration of those concerns through a family saga, bringing them into a narrative shaped by both psychological realism and spiritual elements.
Gomez’s intended message is that the human spirit can rise when life’s storms do. That emphasis connects the novel’s inspirational dimension to its treatment of emotional suffering, without making the hardships themselves incidental. Faith and forgiveness sit alongside madness and survival as central themes, keeping endurance and the possibility of change within the same story.
The writing also coincided with a major event in Gomez’s own life: He underwent a heart transplant when the manuscript was three-quarters finished. His account of that experience supplies a personal context for the debut.
“My transplant gave me the gift of life, which allowed me to finally finish my debut novel.” — CHARLES GOMEZ
As CBS News Latin American Correspondent, Gomez covered stories in 23 Latin American countries. Earlier in his career, reporting under the professional name Chuck Gomez, he worked as a local television news reporter. He is the recipient of an Emmy Award for news and has also been awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Journalism. The International Impact Book Awards named Gomez Author of the Year 2025 for his autobiography, Cuban Son Rising. Charles Gomez is also the author of Eye of the Storm (Second Edition), his debut novel, which he spent five years completing.
Available now.
Get your copy here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G9ML7J96
For review copies, interview requests, or additional information, please contact:
Charles “Chuck” Gomez
BrightKey PR
media@brightkeypr.com
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability
for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this
article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Media gallery
