Lieutenant Mario Conde is suffering from a terrible New Year`s Eve hangover. Though it`s the middle of a weekend, he is asked to urgently investigate the mysterious disappearance of Rafael Morin, a high-level business manager in the Cuban nomenklatura. Conde remembered Morin from their student days: good-looking, brilliant, a ”reliable comrade` who always got what he wanted, including Tamara the girl Conde was after. But Rafael Morin`s exemplary rise from a poor barrio & picture perfect life hide more than one suspicious episode worthy of investigation. While pursuing the case in a decaying but adored Havana, Conde confronts his lost love for Tamara & the dreams & illusions of his generation. ...

Havana in the City Guide Series from Lonely Planet, profiling in comprehensive detail the history, major sights, best places to eat, nightlife, accommodation & shopping possibilities of an extensive range of cities worldwide. Frank & informal in style, the guides are renowned for their appeal to independent travellers & are written & researched by local authors. Each guide is divided into 11 main sections
- Getting Started, Background, Neighbourhoods, Shopping, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, The Arts, Sports & Activities, Gay & Lesbian, Sleeping & Day Trips & Excursions. The Background section details the history, arts, architecture, environment, media, fashion & government & politics of the city. An
...

Marzena Pogorzaly made two trips to Havana. There, she walked the streets of Havana Vieja & El Centro, the old districts, trying to capture the melancholy beauty & decay of the city, & its inhabitants. Pogorzaly`s calmly gorgeous images are not directly concerned with politics, but as someone who grew up in pre-Solidarity Pol&, she combines mature scepticism about communist regimes with due respect for some of its achievements. As she explains in her introduction: ` Some of it was familiar. I was born, & grew up, behind the Iron Curtain. I immediately felt at home with the way The System worked, or rather the way it did not. But where the palette of my homeland was dull, drab & irredeemably monochrome, here I found a vivid treasure chest of visual epiphanies”` Her chief care is for people, either viewed directly or by means of the traces they leave: posters of Che Guevara, neglected chairs, rickety old American cars. Her photographs are entirely without sentimentality but rich in that tradition of humanism which sees the deeper qualities that unite us with strangers, as well as the surface differences that divide us. Her Cubans are not pathetic victims of a dictatorship but a handsome, vital, proud & resourceful people. ...

A fascinating, powerfully evocative account of four generations of Cuban women: Naty Revuelta, born in 1925, a socialite during the Batista era, who became intoxicated with Castro & his revolution; Naty`s mother, an unregenerate reactionary, & Naty`s two daughters, one of whom is the illegitimate & unacknowledged child of Castro. Each of the women`s lives is shaped by a part of the island`s terrible & poignant contemporary history, & together they weave a tapestry
- at once intimate & revelatory
- of Cuba in our century.

...

Havana, 2003, fourteen years since Mario Conde retired from the police force & much has changed in Cuba. He now makes a living trading in antique books bought from families selling off their libraries in order to survive. In the house of Alcides de Montes de Oca, a rich Cuban who fled after the fall of Batista, Conde discovers an extraordinary book collection &, buried therein, a newspaper article about violeta del Rio, a beautiful bolero singer of the 1950`s, who disappeared mysteriously. Conde`s intuition sets him off on an investigation that leads him into a darker Cuba, now flooded with dollars, populated by pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers & other hunters of the night. But this novel also allows Padura to evoke the Havana of Batista, the city of a hundred night clubs where Marlon Brando & Josephine Baker listened to boleros, mambos & jazz. Probably Padura`s best book, ” Havana Fever” is many things: a suspenseful crime novel, a cruel family saga & an ode to literature & his beloved, ravaged isl&. ...

Lonely Planet: The world`s number one travel guide publisher* Durable & waterproof, with a handy slipcase & easy-fold format, Lonely Planet`s Havana City Map helps you get around with ease. Get more from your map & your trip with images & information about top city attractions, walking tour routes, transport maps, itinerary suggestions, extensive street & site index, & practical travel tips & directory. With this easy-to-use, full-color map in your rear pocket, you can truly get to the heart of Havana. Durable & waterproof Easy-fold format & convenient size Handy slipcase Full color & easy to use Extensive street & site index Images & information about top city attractions Handy transport maps Walking tour routes Practical travel tips & directory Itinerary suggestions Covers Habana Vieja, Parque Historico Militar Morro Cabana, Centro Habana, Vedado, Playa & Marianao, Playas del Este Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet`s Pocket Havana, our handy-sized guide featuring the best sights & experiences for a short visit. About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company & the world`s number one travel guidebook br&, providing both inspiring & trustworthy information for every kind of traveler since 1973. Over the past four decades, we`ve printed over 145 million guidebooks & grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travelers. You`ll also find our content online, & in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair & lifestyle books, ebooks, & more.` Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.`
- New York Times` Lonely Planet. It`s on everyone`s bookshelves; it`s in every traveller`s hands. It`s on mobile phones. It`s on the Internet. It`s everywhere, & it`s telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.`
- Fairfax Media (Australia)* Source: Nielsen Book Scan: Australia, UK, USA, 5/2016-4/2017

...

Havana in the Everyman Map Guide series; comprising a range of practical guide books incorporating large scale maps to a number of international cities & regions. Including a unique binding method, each district, neighbourhood, area or region has an accompanying fold-out page with a large scale overview map which is fully indexed. Each Map Guide also has details of more than 100 shops, restaurants, bars, clubs, markets & other local attractions, in addition to more practical guidance, listed underneath & on the reverse of the fold-out map. All of the main attractions also have accompanying illustrations, & there are also transport maps & a street index to help visitors find their way around. ...

Havana in Michelin’s ‘ Must Sees’ series is a lightweight guide containing must see information, must see sights, must do activities & must know practicalities graded using Michelin’s time-honoured star rating system. The guide opens with a section of useful ‘ Must Know’ information that

Includes:: a calendar of events, practical tips on getting by & a summary of Michelin selected star attractions. The ‘ Must See’ section of the guide look at shopping, nightlife & theatre, hotels & dining, parks & gardens, neighbourhoods, landmarks, museums, historic sites, practical information, events, tips & excursions. The ‘ Must Do’ chapter

Includes:: a focus on activities for children, whereas places to eat & places to stay are reviewed in the ‘ Must Eat’ & ‘ Must Stay’ chapters.



...

To most outsiders, Havana is a tropical wreckage of sin, sex & noise, a parallel world familiar but exotic
- & embargoed enough
...

WINNER OF THE HAMMETT PRIZEHavana Red is the first of Leonardo Padura’s awesome Havana quartet featuring Inspector Mario Conde; making Padura a Caribbean Ellroy if you will. & like the best of Ellroy’s work, Padura manages to expose the gritty, dirtier underbelly of Havana through the journey Conde takes to unravel the murder before him. On August 6th 1989, the day on which the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration, the body of a strangled transvestite is discovered in the humid undergrowth of the Havana Woods. He is wearing a beautiful red evening dress & the red ribbon with which he was asphyxiated is still round his neck. To the consternation of Lieutenant Mario Conde, in charge of the investigation, the victim turns out to be Alexis Arayan, the son of a highly respected diplomat. His investigation begins with a visit to the home of the `disgraced` dramatist, Alberto Marques, with whom the murdered youth was living. Marques, a man of letters & a former giant of the Cuban theatre, helps Conde solve the crime. In the baking heat of the Havana summer, Conde also unveils a dark, turbulent world of Cubans who live without dreaming of exile, grappling with food shortages & wounds from the Angolan war. ...