Books_ARt & Culture

Leonardo Padura
(1955)

Abel Prieto
(1950)

Pedro Juan Gutiérrez(1950)

Ex-detective Mario Conde, the hero of four earlier successful novels, who has become a bookseller due to the difficult economic situation in Cuba, driven by the need to prove his innocence in a crime in which he seems to be implicated, digs into the nightclub scene of the 1950s and in the hallucinating world of delinquency of present-day Havana

The lives, sometimes convergent, sometimes divergent, of three high school friends become the thread of this novel, which, through a gallery of characters and situations ranging from the hilarious to the tragic, explores Cuba's rich and contradictory reality of the 1960s and 70s

Gutiérrez—regarded in Europe as a 'tropical Bukowski', whose unprejudiced vision and language, which borders on the obscene, have made him a controversial author—considers this his first novel 'a study on human cruelty' submerged in a marginal world of unbridled sexuality and hopeless characters.

The short stories that comprise this volume, with subtle yet implacable depth, delve into the psychology of its characters: women immersed in the conflicts, doubts and frustrations of a society headed towards the upsetting material and spiritual changes that defined the close of the century in Cuba.

The relationship between a naive young man from the country who studies social sciences, and a stubbornly urban homosexual who worships Cuban culture, serves as background to a critical view of intolerance and dogmatism that marked the Island during the 1970s. The story has been adapted for the stage and served as the basis for the famous Cuban film Strawberry and Chocolate.

The result of thorough historical research, the portrayal of the period of antimonarchic revolution led in England by Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century gave Lisandro Otero the pretext for this profound reflection—with an underlying contemporary feel—on power and the nature of resources it uses to establish itself and endure

Considered by the critics as the work that marks the beginning of detective fiction in Cuban literature, with this scientific counterespionage-based novel, the author embarks on a literary career that has been distinguished with numerous awards.

Another classic among short story-telling in the continent, inserted within the so-called "violence short stories", with artistic skill, it tells of the conflicts developed from the daily military tensions of the 1960s when the history of the Cuban Revolution was being decided.

In this classic of Latin American narrative, profoundly humane characterizations and situations are concisely told through stories about the war waged against armed bands in the EscambrayMountains during the 1960's.

Singular testimony given to the author by a rebel slave and told as an enjoyable account of a survivor of slavery, this book has been translated into numerous languages and is considered one of the texts that introduce the literary genre of testimony into literature. In the words of Graham Greene, "There wasn't a book like this before, and it is quite improbable it will be repeated."

Written by one of the most widely read Cuban authors of the 20th century, this book is structured as a novel and revealed in the historical, aesthetic, ideological, mythological, autobiographical levels, which together manage to create a work that reads as a family chronicle or the anthropological history of Cuba, among other possible interpretations.

Cabrera Infante sets his narration in the skilfully described, fascinating world of Havana nightlife, which serves as background for mix-ups and confusions, delving into the passions and miseries of its characters with an ironic and sometimes sarcastic examination

A controversial, yet widely acclaimed book both in Cuba and abroad, it is the most complete study of the Cuban sugar economic and social structure and an essential guide to understanding the peculiarities of plantation economy and its present outlook.

Established as one of the momentous novels of the so-called boom of Latin American narrative, with its polished baroque style and based on 'magic realism'—a term suggested by Carpentier himself—it deals with the repercussions of the French Revolution in the Caribbean through a love story.

A collection of topics on poetry assumed by Vitier as a reflection of the spiritual image of culture, a lyrical study of the relationships between poetry and homeland. A classic in its own right, it is one of the most enlightening essays on Cuban poetry.

Erudition, precise prose and wit are combined in this essay written by one who has been considered the 'discoverer' of 20th-century Cuba. Based on the agrarian, economic, historical and social differences of these two products, which have played a leading role in Cuba since the 18th century, this synthesis of Cuban society clarifies the past and helps us understand the present.

A collection of poems dubbed 'mulatto' by its author—Cuba's National Poet—, announces the true cultural identity of the Cuban people beyond colour differences and where for the first time poetry is imbued with the sensual and playful rhythm of the son.

One of the first works of the so-called 'postcolonial studies', this book is a revealing essay for a better understanding of the development of Latin American literature and is a decisive contribution to Third World thinking and a theoretical approach to the culture of these peoples.

Consisting of the four numbers of a magazine that the Apostle of Cuban independence dedicated to the children of America, with beautiful poems and narrations filled with useful knowledge and valuable teachings, it is the classic par excellence of Cuban literature for children.

The most important work of fiction of 19th-century Cuba. This novel, which is in itself a synthesis of the customs of the period and a model for the study of society, as well as historical portrayal, introduced melodrama in Cuban culture and established what is probably the only national literary myth: that of the sensual and beautiful mulatta, Cecilia Valdés.