The Book of Havana: A City in Short Fiction
- ISBN-10
- 1912697041
- ISBN-13
- 9781912697045
- Category
- Fiction
- Pages
- 128
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2018-06-21
- Publisher
- Comma Press
- Authors
- Ahmel Echevarría Peré, Daniel Chavarria, Irina J. Davidenko
Description
When a history teacher decides to throw out an old, threadbare Cuban flag, he doesn’t plan for the air of suspicion that quickly descends on him… A woman’s attempt to register ownership of her family home draws her into a bureaucratic labyrinth that requires a grasp of higher mathematics to fully comprehend… On the day of their graduation, a group of students spend the night drinking around the ‘Fountain of Youth’, ironically celebrating the bright future that doesn’t await them… The stories gathered in this anthology reflect the many complex challenges Havana’s citizens have had to endure as a result of their country’s political isolation – from the hardships of the ‘Special Period’, to the pitfalls of Cuba’s schizophrenic currency system, to the indignities of becoming a cheap tourist destination for well-heeled Westerners. Moving through various moments in its recent history, as well as through different neighbourhoods – from the prefab, Soviet-era maze of Alamar, to the bars and nightclubs of the Malecón and Vedado – these stories also demonstrate the defiance of Havana: surviving decades of economic disappointment with a flair for the comic, the surreal and the fantastical that remains as fresh as the first dreams of revolution. Translated from the Spanish by Orsola Casagrande and Séamas Carraher.
Get the book
Similar books
-
Next Year in Havana
By Chanel CleetonA HELLO SUNSHINE x REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK "A beautiful novel that's full of forbidden passions, family secrets and a lot of courage and sacrifice.
-
Our Man in Havana
By Graham GreeneThe hero of this black comedy is Wormald, a vacuum-cleaner salesman in pre-revolutionary Cuba, which is beset by power cuts.
-
Find Me in Havana: A Novel
By Serena BurdickFrom the bestselling author of THE GIRLS WITH NO NAMES, a new historical novel based on the dazzling story of one of Hollywood’s most celebrated Hispanic actresses and her daughter’s search for closure. “Told in a series of letters, ...
-
Havana: A Subtropical Delirium
By Mark KurlanskyThrough Mark Kurlansky's multilayered and electrifying portrait, the long-elusive city of Havana comes stirringly to life.
-
All the Way to Havana
By Margarita EngleSo we purr, cara cara, and we glide, taka taka, and we zoom, zoom, ZOOM!
-
Dirty Havana Trilogy: A Novel in Stories
By Pedro Juan GutierrezBanned in Cuba but celebrated throughout the Spanish-speaking world, this picaresque novel in stories chronicles the misadventures of Pedro Juan, a former Cuban journalist living from hand to mouth in the squalor of contemporary Havana, ...
-
Waiting For Snow In Havana
By Carlos EireThe fuse vanished, the last spark flew, and nothing. Zilch. I was mad. It was my third or fourth dud that day. I thought I had waited long enough, but as I reached for the firecracker my dad and my brother and my friends shouted at me ...
-
Our Man Down in Havana
By Christopher HullTwelve weeks after its publication, in January 1959, the Cuban Revolution triumphed, soon transforming a capitalist playground into a communist stronghold.Combining biography, history, politics, and a measure of psychoanalysis, Our Man Down ...
-
The Cat King of Havana
By Tom CrosshillLolcats. Salsa dancing. Unrequited love. Tom Crosshill's smart and witty debut teen novel treads a colorful coming-of-age journey from New York City to Havana that will appeal to fans of books by Matthew Quick and Junot Díaz.
-
Son of Havana: A Baseball Journey from Cuba to the Big Leagues and Back
By Saul Wisnia, Luis TiantReaders will share Tiant’s pride when appeals by a pair of US senators to baseball-fanatic Castro secure freedom for Luis’s parents to fly to Boston and witness the 1975 World Series glory of their child.