Launched by the summer '04 award-winning bestseller Brooklyn Noir,
Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir
anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in
a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. Brand
new stories by: Leonardo Padura, Pablo Medina, Alex Abella, Arturo
Arango, Lea Aschkenas, Moisés Asís, Arnaldo Correa, Mabel Cuesta,
Paquito D'Rivera, Yohamna Depestre, Michel Encinosa Fú, Mylene Fernández
Pintado, Carolina García-Aguilera, Miguel Mejides, Achy Obejas, Oscar F.
Ortíz, Ena Lucía Portela, Mariela Varona Roque, and Yoss.
To most outsiders, Havana is a tropical sin city: a Roman ruin of sex
and noise, a parallel universe familiar but exotic, and embargoed enough
to serve as a release valve for whatever desire or pulse has been
repressed or denied. Habaneros know that this is neither new--long
before Havana collapsed during the Revolution's Special Period, all the
way back to colonial times, it had already been the destination of
choice for foreigners who wanted to indulge in what was otherwise
forbidden to them--nor particularly true.
In the real Havana--the lawless Havana that never appears in the
postcards or tourist guides--the concept of sin has been banished by the
urgency of need. And need--aching and hungry--inevitably turns the human
heart darker, feral, and criminal. In this Havana, crime, though
officially vanquished by revolutionary decree, is both wistfully
quotidian and personally vicious. In the stories of Havana Noir,
current and former residents of the city--some international sensations
such as Leonardo Padura, others exciting new voices like Yohamna
Despestre--uncover crimes of violence and loveless sex, of mental
cruelty and greed, of self-preservation and collective hysteria.
