Havana Noir
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“[A] superb collection . . . The 18 stories by current and former residents of Havana are gritty, heartbreaking and capture the city.” —Orlando Sentinel
To most outsiders, Havana is a tropical sin city. Habaneros know that this is neither new nor particularly true. In the real Havana—the lawless Havana that never appears in the postcards or tourist guides—the concept of sin has been banished by the urgency of need. And need—aching and hungry—inevitably turns the human heart darker, feral, and criminal. In this Havana, crime, though officially vanquished by revolutionary decree, is both wistfully quotidian and personally vicious.
In the stories of Havana Noir, current and former residents of the city—some international sensations such as Leonardo Padura, others exciting new voices like Yohamna Depestre—uncover crimes of violence and loveless sex, of mental cruelty and greed, of self-preservation and collective hysteria. Other authors include: Pablo Medina, Alex Abella, Arturo Arango, Lea Aschkenas, Moisés Asís, Arnaldo Correa, Mabel Cuesta, Michel Encinosa Fú, Mylene Fernández Pintado, Carolina García-Aguilera, Miguel Mejides, Achy Obejas, Oscar F. Ortíz, Ena Lucía Portela, Mariela Varona Roque, and Yoss.
“[A] remarkable collection . . . gritty tales of deprivation, depravity, heroic perseverance, revolution and longing in a city mythical and widely misunderstood.” —The Miami Herald
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 17th in Akashic's acclaimed series of original noir anthologies is the first with a non-Anglo setting (the two earlier non-U.S. locales were London and Dublin). The choice to collect Cuban stories was a smart one: it will expose American noir fans to other cultures, and readers interested in those other cultures will get a taste of noir. The authors will be unknown to virtually all American readers, but by and large, they prove themselves as capable of crafting grim and gritty stories of despair and irony as their more familiar counterparts. The standout is Mylene Fernandez Pintado's "The Scene," a short but searing portrait of trapped lives. As the unnamed narrator nears the end of his rope, he simultaneously faces eviction from his apartment and the impending death of his elderly mother, for whom he is caring. Pintado succeeds in using the genre without resorting to violence or sex, and this story should send readers in search of her other work, though most of it is available only in Spanish.
