Dancing to 'Almendra'

Havana, 1957. On the same day that the Mafia capo Umberto Anastasia is assassinated in a barber’s chair in New York, a hippopotamus escapes from the zoo and is shot and killed by its pursuers. Assigned to cover the zoo story, Joaquín Porrata, a young Cuban journalist, finds himself embroiled in the mysterious connections between the hippo’s death and the mobster’s when a secretive zookeeper whispers to him that he `knows too much’. In exchange for a promise to introduce the keeper to his idol, the film star George Raft, now the host of the Capri casino, Joaquín gets information that ensnares him in an ever-thickening plot of murder, mobsters, and, finally, love. The love story is another mystery. Told by Yolanda, a beautiful ex-circus performer now working for the famed Sans Souci cabaret, it interleaves through Joaquín’s underworld investigations, eventually revealing a family secret deeper even than Havana’s brilliantly evoked enigmas. In Dancing to `Almendra’, Mayra Montero has created an ardent and thrilling tale of innocence lost, of Havana’s secret world that is `the basis for the clamor of the city’, and of the end of a violent era of fantastic characters and extravagant crimes. Based on the true history of a bewitching city and its denizens, `Almendra’ is the latest triumph from one of Latin America’s most impassioned and intoxicating voices. Praise for Mayra Montero's previous novels: 'A literary tour de force . . . A tale of unforgettable beauty' Los Angeles Times on The Messenger 'A dazzling, original fugue on love and extinction' New Yorker on The Palm of Darkness

About the Author :
Mayra Montero is the author of a collection of short stories and several novels. She was born in Cuba and lives in Puerto Rico, where she writes a weekly column for the newspaper El Nuevo Dia.

Review :
"[Montero is a novelist] of outstanding importance . . . ["Almendra" is] a masterly work [that] leaves the reader breathless." --Luis de la Pena, "La Razon" (Spain)  Praise for "Captain of the Sleepers: """  "Montero probes [the] depths of inner ruin with the gelid calm and lucid exactitude that belies her characters' tortured passions and the story's tropical settings . . . [Her] sentences, planed to a soothing smoothness by Spanish translator extraordinaire Edith Grossman, slide up against each other, inexorably building to a truly tragic--and truly disturbing--ending. [Montero is] a worthy peer for the likes of Mario Vargas Llosa." --Oscar Villalon, "San Francisco Chronicle" "ÝMontero is a novelist¨ of outstanding importance . . . Ý"Almendra" is¨ a masterly work Ýthat¨ leaves the reader breathless." --Luis de la Pena, "La Razon" (Spain)  Praise for "Captain of the Sleepers: """  "Montero probes Ýthe¨ depths of inner ruin with the gelid calm and lucid exactitude that belies her characters' tortured passions and the story's tropical settings . . . ÝHer¨ sentences, planed to a soothing smoothness by Spanish translator extraordinaire Edith Grossman, slide up against each other, inexorably building to a truly tragic--and truly disturbing--ending. ÝMontero is¨ a worthy peer for the likes of Mario Vargas Llosa." --Oscar Villalon, "San Francisco Chronicle" "I devoured it with absolute delight, and I'm looking forward to reading it again, and to reading anything Montero might come up with next."--"The New York Times Book Review" "Montero exploits true crime, romance, family drama, cabaret, and even danzon. . . . Her new novel is a hell of a song."--"San Francisco"" Chronicle" "[Montero] has crafted a story of pre-revolutionary Havana that crackles with violence, mystery, and a truly eccentric view of love. Imagine Raymond Carver crossed with Oscar Hijuelos's "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.""--"O, The Oprah Magazine" "An extremely stylish novel . . . Montero is an energetic writer and Grossman's translation renders her prose into a wry, bawdy, delicious rhythm. . . . Here is a story of [Montero's] native country, marching toward the future one murder, one one-night stand, one dead hippo at a time. It's even more fun than it sounds."--"The Star-Ledger "(Newark) "Montero has delivered a well-written, cinematic story that fairly steps off the page. Think "Chinatown" set in the late 1950s, pre-Castro Cuba."--"The Plain Dealer" "Masterful . . . What a story! Montero has played her usual sleight of hand."--"Houston"" Chronicle" "Crackles with violence, mystery, and a truly eccentric view of love. Imagine Raymond Carver crossed with Oscar Hijuelos's "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.""--"O, The Oprah Magazine" "" "Think "Chinatown "set in the late 1950s pre-Castro Cuba. . . . Mayra Montero has delivered a well-written, cinematic story that fairly steps off the page."--"The Plain Dealer "(Cleveland) "I devoured it with absolute delight, and I'm looking forward to reading it again, and to reading anything Montero might come up with next."--"The New York Times Book Review" "" "[An] extremely stylish novel . . . Here is a story of [Montero's] native country, marching toward the future one murder, one one-night stand, one dead hippo at a time. It's even more fun than it sounds."--"The Star-Ledger "(Newark) "Masterful entertainment--fast-moving, emotionally involving, mysterious, violent, and romantic."--"The ""Palm ""B""each Post"