Dancing to 'Almendra' - Softcover

"YMontero is a novelist of outstanding importance . . . Y"Almendra" is a masterly work Ythat leaves the reader breathless." --Luis de la Pena, "La Razon" (Spain) Praise for "Captain of the Sleepers: """ "Montero probes Ythe depths of inner ruin with the gelid calm and lucid exactitude that belies her characters' tortured passions and the story's tropical settings . . . YHer 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. YMontero is a worthy peer for the likes of Mario Vargas Llosa." --Oscar Villalon, "San Francisco Chronicle" "[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" "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"

A spellbinding chronicle of love, murder and the mob in pre-revolutionary Havana