Havana Libre
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this “exquisitely made thriller” by the author of Havana Lunar, a Cuban doctor is caught up in a web of espionage and international crime (Booklist).
During the summer of 1997, a series of bombings terrorize Havana hotels. The targets are tourists, and the terrorists are exiles seeking to cripple Cuban tourism and kill the revolution. After Dr. Mano Rodriguez finds himself helpless to save one of the victims, his nemesis Colonel Emilio Pérez of the National Revolutionary Police recruits him into Havana’s top-secret Wasp Network of spies for an undercover job in the most dangerous city in Latin America: Miami . . .
“Action [and] rich landscapes of daily life in Cuba during the special period, including blackouts, food shortages, the intricacies of conversation under an authoritarian government, and the craftiness of locals who offer guided tours to tourists for money—all details from over a decade of Arellano’s journals from his trips in the ‘90s.” —Miami New Times
“A remarkably powerful narrative. The interrogation scene repulses while it grips . . . but readers are advised to stay with it for a rich reading experience.” —Booklist, starred review
“Arellano’s world of clinic doctors, hotel hustlers, secret police, and neighborhood spies is as rich and vibrant a place as I’ve come across in fiction in a long while. His style has something of Bolaño’s cynical, madcap energy, but with Graham Greene’s eye for the small absurdities in life, the same absurdities that, under the right (or wrong) circumstances, spin out into an international catastrophe.” —Literary Hub
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Billed as a standalone sequel to Edgar-finalist Arellano's Havana Lunar, this potent noir sheds light on Cuban life in the post-Soviet era. In 1997, a series of terrorist bombings have put the people of Havana on edge. The attacks, focused on densely populated tourist areas, seem aimed at crippling the communist power structure. When Mano Rodriguez, a talented pediatrician in Cuba's national medical service, is invited to attend a medical seminar in Miami, he puts in a request for an exit permit, which attracts the attention of Col. Emilio P rez of the revolutionary police force. P rez offers to expedite the paperwork if Rodriguez agrees to help them with a special undercover mission to infiltrate the exiled Cubans in Miami believed to be responsible for the bombings, to help thwart future attacks. Rodriguez's assignment is to fake his own defection, and his contact in Miami is none other than the father who abandoned him and his mother nearly three decades ago. Building to an explosive ending, this atmospheric mix of proletarian literature and Graham Greene style espionage informs as it entertains.
