Why a Booktrail?
Various: Do you really know the real Havana? The Havana that exists away from the cameras and the tourists..
Havana Noir
What you need to know before your trail
Havana is a city of sin according to this collection of short stories. It’s been through wars, revolutions and special periods and a haven for cigar loving tourists.
In the stories, all the narrators are current or former residents of the city, Leonardo Padura gives his voice and a Cuba of Noir, violence, repression, the need for revenge, and self-preservation.
This is the story of Cuba and the voice of its people. Although it won’t be on any tourist guides list anytime soon!
Travel Guide
Havana
Says Obejas in her introduction”
“To most outsiders, Havana is a tropical wreckage of sin, sex, and noise, a parallel world familiar but exotic – and embargoed enough to serve as a release value for whatever pulse has been expressed or denied
Havana has recently existed only as myth: a garden of delights, a vortex of tarantism, but also – perversely – the capital site of a social experiment in which humans somehow deny the worst of our natures.
But Havana – the Havana where Cubans actually live is a city of ironic and often agonising contradictions.
It’s name means “site of the waters” yet there are no beaches. Its poverty is crushing but the ingenuity of its people makes it appear resilient and bountiful”
The journey around Havana via each chapter:
Sleepless in Havana
Old Havana, Vedado, Malecon, Marianao
Escape to Nowhere
Flores, Jaimanitas, Siboney, El Cerro
Sudden Rage
Santos Suarez, Vibora, Lawton, Centro Havana
Drowning in Silence
Chinatown, Regla, Casablanca, Cojimar , Alamar
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: Havana Noir
Author/Guide: Achy Obejas Destination: Havana Departure Time: Various
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