Leonardo Padura was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1955. A novelist, journalist, and critic, he is the author of several novels, including The Man Who Loved Dogs (FSG, 2014); two volumes of short stories; and several nonfiction collections. His novels featuring the detective Mario Conde have been translated into many languages and have won literary prizes around the world. He lives in Cuba.
Anna Kushner was born in Philadelphia and first traveled to Cuba in 1999. She has translated the novels of Guillermo Rosales, Norberto Fuentes, Gonçalo M. Tavares, and Leonardo Padura.
"Gorgeous, sweeping . . . Heretics is part history, part detective
story, but its overarching theme is the tension between the
limitless yearnings of the human spirit and the limitations of
geography and politics . . . Padura seems to have set his sights on
transcending his island nation's political system, rather than
defying it." --Charles Lane, The Washington Post "Like Viet Thanh
Nguyen's novel The Sympathizer . . . Padura's Heretics spans and
defies literary categories. All of which would only be of ho-hum
technical interest if Heretics weren't also an arresting novel
about fanaticism, anti-Semitism and the long fall-out of a
decades-old moment of political cowardice . . . Padura's ingenious
novel is something of a heretic itself: by turns playful, dark, and
moving, it traces the great psychic costs--and rewards--that come
from nestling so deeply into dogma that nothing is permitted to
trigger doubt."
--Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air "A grungy, beautiful gutter epic . .
. Rum-soaked and bloody. Dangerous and funny. Chandler in the
tropics, if Chandler had a sense of humor and a PhD in art history
and Diaspora studies."
--Jason Sheehan, NPR Books "The pages of Cuban author Leonardo
Padura's ample feast of a historical novel (translated from the
Spanish, con gusto, by Anna Kushner) are populated by 'Heretics' of
many sorts--religious, artistic, political and social . . . Mr.
Padura displays a painter's eye worthy of his expansive canvas,
which includes Dutch burghers in 1647, Jewish refugees escaping
Hitler, Cuban baseball fans in the 1950s and disaffected Havana
youth of the mid-2000s. This rich prose-panorama proves to be as
much a spiritual meditation and a paean to individual freedom as it
is a murder mystery and a treasure hunt." --Tom Nolan, The Wall
Street Journal "The Cuban Leonardo Padura's reputation is ironclad,
and if you need reminding why, pick up Heretics . . . It's as much
an astringent picture of Padura's own society as a crime fiction
outing."
--Barry Forshaw, The Guardian, The Best Recent Thrillers "A
multigenerational epic of baseball, religion, and a mysterious
Rembrandt painting . . . Padura's novel does not just place dogma
and religious law against human desire . . . Heretics asks us what
we remember, and why; do we know anything about our grandparents'
traumas, and, if so, why is that generational memory easier to lose
in time than a painting?"
--Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic "[A] fantastic novel . .
. Now in a stunning translation by the preeminent translator of
Cuban literature Anna Kushner, Hereticsdepicts Havana's unorthodox
progression into the present with an equally orthodox telling of it
. . . As Cuba slowly acclimates to the world and Havana welcomes
greater numbers of visitors each year, Heretics may serve as its
best novelized introduction."
--Michael Barron, The Culture Trip "Remarkable . . . [Padura] moves
with agility and ease from the formal discussion of heresy and the
history of persecution to the drink-enabled chatter of contemporary
friends. There's a through-line of speculative
investigation--whether as to the existence of God, the coming of a
false Messiah, the provenance of the Rembrandt or the identity of
the art thief and his murderer."
--Nicholas Delbanco, Moment magazine "Padura deftly handles complex
issues of Jewish identity in Cuba, as well as Cuban identity on the
island before and after Batista and in Miami; ultimately, he
encompasses the whole richness of modern Cuban and Jewish history.
This is a major novel and a testament to Padura's stature as a
writer." --Mark Levine, Booklist (starred review) "The intensive,
richly detailed narrative is at once a portrait of Cuban
upbringing, a meditation on anti-Semitism, and an intriguing
account of the painting. . . Highly recommended." --Library Journal
(starred review) "A beautifully teeming novel of revelation and
family history, alive with the cadences of Cuba and the sorrows and
hopes of the WWII Jewish diaspora. This book is also a lavish
detective story, unraveling across continents and cultures and
decades as it probes the meaning of a single, beguiling
masterpiece--a small Rembrandt portrait of Christ that refuses to
be silenced in the folds of art history."
--Dominic Smith, author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos "The
perfect blend of historical, social, and espionage fiction. An
adventure that without a respite. The best novel of the eight that
Padura has written with Conde as protagonist . . . Enjoy it."
--Juan Carlos Galindo, El País "Cuban mysterian Padura returns with
another installment in his Mario Conde detective series, this one
following a Rembrandt portrait over centuries and continents . . .
Padura capably works here in Perez-Reverte territory, where art and
ideas meet mayhem. Smart and satisfying." --Kirkus Reviews
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