Havana Gold (Mario Conde Series #2)

by Leonardo Padura

Overview

Scorching novel from a star of Cuban fiction. The fourth of the Havana Quartet series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781904738886
Publisher:	Bitter Lemon Press, Ltd
Publication date:	06/01/2008
Series:	Mario Conde Series , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	278
Sales rank:	319,236
File size:	325 KB

About the Author

Leonardo Padura was born in 1955 in Havana. He is a prize winning novelist, essayist, journalist and scriptwriter. International fame came with the publication of the Havana Quartet, all featuring Lieutenant Mario Conde, of which Havana Black is the second to be available in English.The Quartet has been translated into seven languages and has won numerous prizes including Spain's Hammett Prize. Critically acclaimed translator known for extensive work on Juan Goytisolo. Also translated Daniel Chavarria and Pedro de Alarcon from Cuba.

Editorial Reviews

Mario Conde, Padura's tormented Cuban police detective, is at his anguished best in this sequentially second volume of the so-called Havana Quartet, which constitutes a four-season chronicle of one year (1989) in Conde's life, though it's the last of the four to be available in English translation. The hard-drinking, romantic Conde, who's wanted to become a writer but ended up as a policeman in a corrupt and struggling land, constantly questions his fate as he investigates the murder of young, good-looking school teacher, Lissette Núñez Delgado, who taught at Pre-University High School, the same school Conde attended in his youth. Conde's return to his old school triggers nostalgia and regrets as he interviews the headmaster, students and fellow teachers. The original title, Vientos de Cuaresma(The Winds of Lent), captures the extensive wind imagery that Padura skillfully uses to capture Conde's state of mind. (June 30)

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Publishers Weekly

Examples of previous Padura reviews: "'Havana Black' is a revelation. A lush, frank, captivating murder mystery."—Atlantic Monthly "A whodunit syncopated with brilliant riffs on Cuban sex, society, religion, even food."—The Independent "Well-plotted second volume of the seething, steaming Havana Quartet . . . a densely packed mystery."—Publishers Weekly "The subterfuges adopted by people in everyday life, particularly in a climate of repression, captured perfectly in Padura's steamy, heat-soaked pages."—The Guardian

From the Publisher