Havana Black

Leonardo Padura was born in 1955 in Havana and lives in Cuba. He is a novelist, essayist, journalist and scriptwriter. Havana Black has been published in Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Germany and France. It is the second of the Havana Quartet of Lieutenant Mario Conde novels to be published in English. Peter Bush is a critically acclaimed translator from Spanish, well known for his extensive work on Juan Goytisolo. He has recently completed translations of Daniel Chavarria, Nuria Amat and Pedro de Alarcon and that of Havana Red.

"Padura's powerful writing creates an atmospheric picture of a turbulent city, illuminated by Conde's sardonic commentary." Sunday Telegraph Conde is thrown into the thick of a tangled web of mysticism, politics and subversive activity. The subterfuges adopted by people in everyday life, particularly in a climate of repression, are captured perfectly in Padura's seamy, heat-soaked pages and Conde's mask of "fears, wariness and lies" lends him mystique". Guardian "A scorching novel from a star of Cuban fiction. Conde's quest follows the basic rhythm of the whodunit, but Padura syncopates it with brilliant literary riffs on Cuban sex, society, religion, even food" Independent "Nothing is what it seems in this case, which has less to do with crime than with the struggle for identity in a corrupt society where outsiders are exiled in their own country. This prize-winning crime noir is the first of a quartet by Cuba's celebrated writer to be translated into English." Daily Mail"