Cuba, Novel: Havana Black by Leonardo Padura

Havana Black was exactly what I was looking for. You do a Google search for Cuban authors and you will, of course, be introduced to a long list of authors, with some pretty impressive reviews.  Many of them don't live in Cuba any longer, however. There are a lot of reasons for this, no doubt. If you sell a lot of books, you make a lot of money and that gives you the wherewithal to pick up and leave the island. And leaving frees you from a whole bunch of hassles both large and small.  Life is no doubt easier abroad. You can live comfortably, buy the things you like and perhaps most important for an author, you can write whatever you like. I'm guessing that is why so many of the authors I considered for this element, I ended up rejecting. They did not meet my most important criteria: they needed to still be living in Cuba.

I wanted to read about Cuba from the perspective of someone who experienced it directly - as opposed to remembering it. I wanted to read the work of someone who would have to be accountable to Cuban authorities for what he wrote.  Someone who did not enjoy the total freedom of expression that comes with exile.  But they had to be big. Big enough to be confident that they could write and still be heard - even if the regime did not like what they had to say.

I thought Leonardo Padura fit that bill. He is described as one of Cuba's best-known authors and Havana Black was the fourth in a series of detective novels revolving around his character, Mario Conde. I chose it because it afforded an opportunity to glimpse life during what Cubans call the ‘Special Period' - the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and Cuba's loss of billions in aid. Havana Black was written during this period and paints a picture of Cuban’s struggles.

The story itself is your typical crime drama ‘whodunit’. Well-written and engaging enough, but perfect for me . The reality of Cuban life came through.  Through Detective Conde I felt I was experiencing things that I had seen while in Cuba but as an outsider could never really appreciate. Havana Black gave me a better understanding of how a Cuban perceived that reality.