by Achy Obejas
First published 2007
In the real Havana that tourists never see, need trumps morality and survival breeds desperation. These eighteen stories by Cuban writers expose the violence lurking behind revolutionary promises. An engineer works as a beautician to survive while brothers peddle their own sister in drug deals. Street fighters contemplate existence as an elderly aristocrat faces impossible choices. A Chinese boy plots revenge for his father's death while sewer dwellers run black markets beneath the city. In Mariela Varona Roque's tale, a neighbor's obsession with his orchid leads to unthinkable cruelty toward a young boy. Pablo Medina follows a man who builds his seventh boat to escape Cuba, only to circle in anguish once he reaches open water. Despite official claims that revolution eliminated crime, these Habaneros know better. In their city of collapsed buildings and empty promises, violence and loveless encounters fill the void left by failed ideals. Yet beneath the brutality runs fierce devotion to the island itself, even as residents choose between escape and enduring in the place that shaped them.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, mystery, crime
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: survival, violence
Setting: Cuba, Havana
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
322 pages · Paperback · Akashic Books, Ltd.
Content warnings: violence