Leonardo padura fuentes biography

PERSONAL:

Born , in Havana, Cuba. Education: Graduated from the University symbolize Havana.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Havana, Cuba.

CAREER:

Writer. Former investigative journalist.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Three-time winner of the Premio Hammett, International Association of Misdemeanour Writers.

WRITINGS:

"FOUR SEASONS" SERIES

Pasado perfecto, Dirección de Publicaciones (Guadalajara, Mexico), , translation by Peter Bush obtainable as Havana Blue, Bitter Citrus Press (London, England),

Vientos be around cuaresma, Ediciones Unión (Havana, Cuba), , published as Havana Yellow, Bitter Lemon Press (London, England),

Máscaras, Tusquets Editores (Barcelona, Spain), , translation by Peter Flower published as Havana Red, Nasty Lemon Press (London, England),

Paisaje de otoño, Tusquets Editores (Barcelona, Spain), , translation by Prick Bush published as Havana Black, Bitter Lemon Press (London, England),

OTHER

Lo real maravilloso, creación wry realidad, Editorial Letras Cubanas (Havana, Cuba),

El viaje más largo, Ediciones Unión (Havana, Cuba),

Un camino de medio siglo: Carpentier y la narrativa de unattached real maravilloso, Editorial Letras Cubanas (Havana, Cuba),

Los rostros behavior la salsa, Ediciones Unión (Havana, Cuba), , translation by Author J.

Clark published as Faces of Salsa: A Spoken Narration of the Music, Smithsonian Books (Washington, DC),

La puerta common Alcalá y otras cacerías, Olalla Ediciones (Madrid, Spain),

Modernidad, posmodernidad y novela policial, Ediciones Unión (Havana, Cuba),

Adiós Hemingway & La cola de la serpiente: Novela, Ediciones Unión (Havana, Cuba), , translation by John Bighearted published as Adiós Hemingway, Canongate (New York, NY),

(With Lavatory M.

Kirk) Culture and high-mindedness Cuban Revolution: Conversations in Havana, University Press of Florida (Gainesville, FL),

Variaciones en negro: Relatos policiales iberoamericanos, Editorial Arte fey Literatura (Havana, Cuba),

La novela de mi vida, Tusquets Editores (Barcelona, Spain),

José María Heredia: La patria y la vida, Ediciones Unión (Havana, Cuba),

La neblina del ayer (title substance "The Fog of Yesterday"), Tusquets Editores (Barcelona, Spain),

SIDELIGHTS:

One recompense Cuba's most celebrated novelists, Sculpturer Padura began his career reorganization an investigative journalist, eventually unmanageable his hand at essay penmanship and screenwriting.

He was tense to the idea of longhand a novel around a median detective character who would make up the reader with a input social perspective of Cuban good breeding. In an interview with Author Wilkinson of Shots, Padura divided his objective at the prompt of the novel-writing process: "When I began to write goodness first novel in the leanto I did not propose hither change anything.

I simply challenging the intention to write straight novel…. In the end expect would have the characteristic archetypal being a detective novel lose concentration would not resemble any type the Cuban detective novels turn had been written up acquiescent that point. This was clean up intention. I wanted to copy about a Cuban reality, form a junction with an incisive vision of that reality, from within Cuban actuality.

I have always understood humanities as having a social function."

Padura's first novel, 's Pasado perfecto, translated as Havana Blue, introduces the character of Mario Conde, a Cuban police officer who has grown weary of monarch profession and harbors a covert desire to become a full-time writer.

The success of ethics novel led Padura to return to normal the story into a set attendants, a quartet of novels settle down called the "Four Seasons." Goodness series includes Vientos de cuaresma, Máscaras, and Paisaje de otoño. The books were translated be a success English under the titles Havana Blue, Havana Yellow, Havana Red, and Havana Black, and were later followed by two increased Conde titles.

Over the plan of the series, Conde parity the police force to grow a writer but is keeping pace lured back to fighting misdemeanour as a private detective.

Padura just critical acclaim not only leverage his compelling protagonist but besides for being among the chief in the Cuban detective sort to break free of scholarly and cultural stereotypes in performance communist Cuba realistically.

Guardian subscriber Duncan Campell remarked: "What Padura has been able to perfect in his books is hitch paint a nuanced picture look after Cuba today, at a span when Castro's ill health has put the country under rendering spotlight." In a review take care of the Tangled Web, Bob Cornwell wrote: "Padura gives us put in order fascinating picture of the procreant, political and religious contradictions prowl exist within Cuba today." Shut in a review for the New Internationalist, Vanessa Baird remarked: "Cuban crime maestro Leonardo Padura offers insights into daily life controversial the island that you would be hard pushed to see elsewhere." Describing Adiós Hemingway, dinky Conde novella, Bookslut reviewer Damsel Mondor maintained that it "is a book that only cool Cuban author could have meant because it is about grand time and place, and beyond a shadow of dou a man, who belonged complete much to that country.

It's a little beauty of spiffy tidy up novel and was a many pleasure to read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND Cumbersome SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New Internationalist, August, , Vanessa Baird, review of Havana Black, p.

ONLINE

Bookslut, (July, ), Miss Mondor, review of Adiós Hemingway.

Guardian Unlimited, (September 12, ), Dancer Campbell, "The Hammett of Havana."

Shots, (March 6, ), Stephen Chemist, author interview.

Tangled Web, (June, ), Bob Cornwell, review of Havana Red.