The Buena Vista Social Club is one of the biggest musical success stories of our times.

The rediscovery of these veteran Cuban musicians by Ry Cooder, with a hugely popular CD, sell-out concerts in Amsterdam and New York and an award-winning film made by Wim Wenders, has been an international sensation.

Ry Cooder’s journey to Cuba is commemorated in this remarkable book capturing the time that Cooder and Wenders spent, wandering the streets of Havana, in the studio, in cafés, clubs and in the homes of the musicians, the legendary ‘Soneros’ of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. They told the stories of their lives, and made songs together, deeply rooted in Cuban traditions which they both followed and transformed.

With a Foreword by Wim Wenders, an interview with Ry Cooder, film stills, black-and-white photographs by Donata Wenders and colour photographs by Wim Wenders, Buena Vista Social Club records their encounters with artists playing the music of their homeland. Song lyrics, dialogue from the original soundtrack of the film and biographies reveal the individual destinies of legendary musicians who came together in their old age to bring the rhythms of Cuba to the world.