Havana Noir (Akashic Noir)

by Achy Obejas

Brand-new stories by: Leonardo Padura, Pablo Medina, Alex Abella, Arturo Arango, Lea Aschkenas, Moises Asis, Arnaldo Correa, Mabel Cuesta, Paquito D'Rivera, Yohamna Depestre, Michel Encinosa Fu, Mylene Fernandez Pintado, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Achy Obejas, Oscar Ortiz, and others.To most outsiders, Havana is a tropical sin city: a Roman ruin of sex and noise, a parallel universe familiar but exotic, and embargoed enough to serve as a release valve for whatever desire or pulse has been repressed or denied. Habaneros know that this is neither new . . . In the real Havana, the concept of sin has been banished by the urgency of need . . . In this Havana, crime, though officially vanquished by revolutionary decree, is both wistfully quotidian and personally vicious.In these stories, current and former residents of the city, uncover crimes of violence and loveless sex, of mental cruelty and greed, of self-preservation and collective hysteria.