Adios Hemingway

Description

When a human skeleton is discovered on Ernest Hemingway's home in Havana, police inspector Mario Conde is called up out of retirement to unearth the truth. In the course of his investigations, Conde gradually reconstructs the mysterious goings-on of the night of 3rd October 1958 and in doing so is forced to come to terms with a very different side to the character of his former literary hero. Padura Fuentes cleverly cuts between Conde's world and that of Hemingway's Cuba four decades earlier. In the heat and rum haze, the two seem slowly to merge as the reader is taken on an extraordinary journey into the past and into the personality of one of the twentieth century's most enigmatic and interesting writers. It's a masterful and totally convincing portrait that emerges, as well as a riveting mystery that keeps the reader on tenterhooks until the very final pages.

Leonardo Padura Fuentes is one of Cuba's most acclaimed writers. He was born in 1955, not far from Hemingway's Cuban home and has written extensively as a critic and essayist, as well as novelist. A winner of the international Dashiell Hammett prize, his books include a series of detective novels featuring Mario Conde.

* intelligent, moving and delightful...It makes you think and feel. What more can you ask for?...a lovely little novel. The Scotsman * Fact and fiction are seamlessly merged... Buzz * ... the gently melancholic tone, beautifully rendered here by John King, subverts any literal reading. The Guardian * a well-paced and beautifully characterised detective story. The Observer * a superb piece of crime literature...a thrilling and engaging mystery. City Life * beautifully recreates a complicated and interesting man. Event Magazine