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

Havana in the Moon Spotlight guide series; covering a range of specific local cities, districts, areas & regions in North, Central & South America & targeted at those seeking to travel to a specific area within a country. Each of the guides has been extracted in full from the relevant country Moon Handbook & individual titles focus on a particular city, region or notable area of the destination. Many of the guides in the series are unique in their coverage, although are limited in putting the destination into its wider geographical context that a more comprehensive guide would provide. Stylistically, Moon ...

Havana in the Wallpaper* City Guide series, published by Phaidon & encompassing a collection of pocket-size guides dedicated to the best design elements in major cities. Compiled by experts at the Wallpaper* magazine, the guides are widely recognized for appealing to design-conscious travellers & are aimed at those interested in art, design & architecture. Each guide identifies the best bars, restaurants, hotels, places to shop, leisure activities & excursions with a unique emphasis on the finest examples of unusual architecture & design. Each Wallpaper* City Guide has the same layout, with separate tabs allowing readers & travellers to access individual sections easily. The tabs consist of Landmarks, Hotels, 24 Hours, Urban Life, Architour, Shopping, Sports & Escapes. High quality colour photographs appear alongside brief descriptions of each hotel, bar or attraction, highlighting distinctive & unusual styles of architecture & design. Extra pages are provided at the back of each guide, allowing readers to record their own notes & sketches. ...

A city of tropical heat, ramshackle beauty, & its very own cadence--a city that always surprises--Havana is brought to pulsing life by New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky. Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky presents an insider`s view of Havana: the elegant, tattered city he has come to know over more than thirty years. Part cultural history, part travelogue, with recipes, historic engravings, photographs, & Kurlansky`s own pen-&-ink drawings throughout, Havana celebrates the city`s singular music, literature, baseball, & food; its five centuries of outstanding, neglected architecture; & its extraordinary blend of cultures. Like all great cities, Havana has a rich history that informs the vibrant place it is today--from the native Taino to Columbus`s landing, from Cuba`s status as a U.S. protectorate to Batista`s dictatorship & Castro`s revolution, from Soviet presence to the welcoming of capitalist tourism. Havana is a place of extremes: a beautifully restored colonial city whose cobblestone streets pass through areas that have not been painted or repaired since long before the revolution. Kurlansky shows Havana through the eyes of Cuban writers, such as Alejo Carpentier & José Martí, & foreigners, including Graham Greene & Hemingway. He introduces us to Cuban baseball & its highly opinionated fans; the city`s music scene, alive with the rhythm of son; its culinary legacy. Through Mark Kurlansky`s multilayered & electrifying portrait, the long-elusive city of Havana comes stirringly to life. ...

In Have a Nice Day the BBC’s North America Editor, Justin Webb, travels beyond the lazy clichés that most Europeans like to think of America & plunges into what makes this paradoxical country work. Webb is keen to uncover the real America & stay clear of recent controversies such as the presidency of George W Bush & the Iraq way, preferring to dwell instead on the question of just what makes America so successful. Although Webb still explores the issues that many Europeans tend to sneer at, such as guns, racial divisions & the influence of the Christian right, this book helps put the rough edges of American life into both geographical & intellectual context. With the election of Barack Obama in the November 2008 election, Webb’s work comes at an apposite time, as the country embarks on a completely new direction as the world watches on. This is exactly the time, Webb is claiming, that we should re-evaluate the very essence of the USA, at why Americans think as they do & indeed why they might actually have a point. ...

Boris`s last book of selected writings was published before he became Mayor of London. Now, seven years & one London Olympics later, he has even more to say about sport, politics, culture & Britain in this superb new collection. In ` Have I Got More Views For You` the inimitable Boris Johnson delivers his unique insight on a refreshingly diverse range of topics. While his six years as Mayor of London & the glorious 2012 Olympics provide inspiration for several of his articles, this anthology of his recent journalism sees Boris give impassioned voice to his opinions on learning & education & the latest developments in media, culture & transport. &, in a new essay written especially for the book, Boris wittily explores his favourite subject
- Britain & British life, from bees to baby boomers & from chutney to royalty! Thoughtfully informed by his years in the service of the people of London, the pithy & provocative ` Have I Got More Views For You` further reveals the mind of one of the most interesting political figures working today.
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Did you know that foreigners who want to live in Britain have to pass a government test to get in? It's true, & some of the questions are harder than ' Why does everyone hate Manchester United?' So the Have I Got News For You team have, in a moving & totally out of character display of public-spiritedness, compiled this Guide to Modern Britain to help guide you around, er, modern Britain. With reassuringly jaundiced reflections on everything from the global recession, religion & the Royal Family to the NHS, education & the media, it's a handy primer to the British Constitution, even though we don't actually have one. (How clever is that?) Think of it as the sort of manual you get with a car
- enough information to help you check the oil, though not enough to re-balance the steering. Packed with useless facts & unhelpful cynicism, the Have I Got News for You Guide to Modern Britain will help you understand exactly how the most ingenious, resilient, resourceful & proudest people on earth became the Twittering, touchy-feely, fame-obsessed, flu-fearing wimps that they are today.
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Did you know that foreigners who want to live in Britain have to pass a government test to get in? It`s true, & some of the questions are harder than ` Why does everyone hate Manchester United?`. So the ” Have I Got News For You” team have, in a moving & totally out of character display of public-spiritedness, compiled this ” Guide to Modern Britain” to help guide you around, er, modern Britain. With reassuringly jaundiced reflections on everything from the global recession, religion & the Royal Family to the NHS, education & the media, it`s a handy primer to the British Constitution, even though we don`t actually have one. (How clever is that?) Think of it as the sort of manual you get with a car
- enough information to help you check the oil, though not enough to re-balance the steering. Packed with useless facts & unhelpful cynicism, the ” Have I Got News for You Guide to Modern Britain” will help you understand exactly how the most ingenious, resilient, resourceful & proudest people on earth became the Twittering, touchy-feely, fame-obsessed, flu-fearing wimps that they are today.
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A seek-&-find number book, enter an ornately drawn cityscape & help a little boy find his dragon while counting objects from hot dogs to traffic lights! As the boy travels all over town searching for his dragon friend, can you spot the glorious beast, as well as an array of big-city landmarks & icons
- buses, taxis, manhole covers, books, bicycles & more? Is the dragon taking the bus, or breathing his fiery breath below a busy street? Maybe he took a taxi to the zoo or is playing with the dogs in the park. Steve Light`s masterful pen-&-ink illustrations, decorated with meticulous splashes of colour, elevate this counting book (numbers 1-20) to new heights
- with brilliant flashes of humour.

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