The Book of Havana (Reading the City)

Travel Guide

Havana

The stories gathered in this anthology reflect the many complex challenges Havana’s citizens have had to endure as a result of their country’s political isolation – from the hardships of the ‘Special Period’, to the pitfalls of Cuba’s schizophrenic currency system, to the indignities of becoming a cheap tourist destination for well-heeled Westerners. Moving through various moments in its recent history, as well as through different neighbourhoods – from the prefab, Soviet-era maze of Alamar, to the bars and nightclubs of the Malecón and Vedado – these stories also demonstrate the defiance of Havana: surviving decades of economic disappointment with a flair for the comic, the surreal and the fantastical that remains as fresh as the first dreams of revolution.

The translator of these stories explains:

“Navigating the stories – (but in essence, the different but sometimes-intersecting worlds) in the Book of Havana – from their native language across more than one bridge to bring them to readers in the English speaking world was a work of love and profound sweat. Orsola Casagrande, as editor and ‘midwife’ had already immersed herself in the stories and their complexities as well as spending time with the authors before I myself arrived, and it was her quiet yet determined commitment to take this work a step further that made the task seem worthwhile. Being a resident of Havana herself and so having experienced many of the landmarks (both spiritual as well as geographical) that the stories used as references, also inspired our collaborative commitment to try and preserve the integrity of the writer’s vision while at the same time helping them find their place within the English speaking world. That this work also offered to bridge the gap between the socialist past of a revolutionary Cuba and an uncertain future also made it seem like a voyage worth taking.”