Before Night Falls is the 1992 autobiography of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, describing his early life in Cuba, the Cuban dissident movement and his political imprisonment, as well as his escape to the United States in the Mariel boatlift of 1980. It received a favorable review from The New York Times and was on the newspaper's list of the ten best books of 1993. The book was adapted into a 2000 film of the same name starring Javier Bardem as Arenas.