AUTHOR’S NOTE

While Marbrisa is a fictional home, as are the characters in the novel, in writing The House on Biscayne Bay, I was inspired by Florida’s natural landscape and animals, and by many of the grand homes—some of which are mentioned in the novel—that were built in South Florida during the twentieth century. I wanted to convey the spirit of the art and architecture that graced these estates as well as the promise of Miami that drew so many down south. If you’ve read The Last Train to Key West, you probably recognized the infamous railroad Anna references in the novel. The Florida East Coast Railway that plays such a pivotal role in that story also plays an important role in this one—ferrying Anna and her husband down to Miami.

The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of expansion in South Florida’s history, culminating in the land boom of the 1920s. The bubble later burst under a myriad of factors including the impact of the 1926 Miami Hurricane. The Great Depression took its toll on South Florida, and on my fictional home of Marbrisa and its denizens. When we “meet” the house again in the later timeline, we see it through Carolina Acosta’s eyes in 1941 as much of the world is at war, the U.S. on the precipice of entering the conflict.

Given the tragic events that occur in the novel at Marbrisa, I thought it fitting for the house to have a future that offered healing, and here I found inspiration in a piece of South Florida history—the fact that the famous Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables was converted to a military hospital during World War II. Giving Marbrisa such a legacy felt appropriate considering the events of the times and provided a hopeful future for the estate and its remaining residents—the infamous peacocks and enormous lizards who are very much a staple of past and present Miami life.