A novel set in Havana, a new set of poets laureate for Massachusetts, and the return of the Nantucket Literary Festival — with a virtual Juneteenth panel Nina MacLaughlin Cuban memories Dariel Suarez’s taut and propulsive debut novel, “The Playwright’s House” (Red Hen), set in present-day Cuba, begins with Seguey’s father, an acclaimed theater director, getting arrested under shadowy circumstances. Seguey, a lawyer who ascended out of the grimmer conditions in which he and his brother Victor grew up, sets about trying to figure out what’s happened, and what he can do to solve it. In the process, he begins to operate on his own accord, “forced himself to act instead of calculate, to viscerally take a stance.” Suarez, author of the award-winning short fiction collection “A Kind of Solitude” and education director at Grub Street, makes Havana’s texture palpable, its streets, rooftops, sodas, its energy, contradictions, and the everpresent force of its politics. Suarez is especially acute in bringing the intensities and complexities of sibling relationships to life. Seguey, with a troubled relationship with his brother, observes the intimacy of his wife and her sister having an argument: “Love did not allow half-measures, incomplete truths. What a luxury it was, the ability to passionately and freely articulate and dispute and be heard. The ability to be close and feel close to your family.” Suarez, with subtle force, gets at who is acting and who is watching, within a family, a city, a country, and a culture. Suarez will read and discuss the book in a virtual launch on June 14 at 7 pm through Porter Square Books. Visit portersquarebooks.com to register.