Dancing to 'Almendra'

Dancing to 'Almendra'

by Mayra Montero (Author)

Synopsis

In Havana in 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, Joaquin 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, Joaquin 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 Joaquin'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 includes: '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".

$3.25

Save:$15.57 (83%)

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Edition: Main Market
Publisher: Picador
Published: 04 May 2007

ISBN 10: 033044932X
ISBN 13: 9780330449328

Media Reviews
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

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

Author Bio
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.