The Transparency of Time: A Novel
Jun 2021 · Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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About this ebook
A captivating blend of historical intrigue and modern-day mystery, The Transparency of Time follows Cuban investigator Mario Conde on a quest spanning centuries of occult history.
As Mario Conde approaches his sixtieth birthday, he grapples with a failing body, a slowing mind, and a Cuba where the ideals and failures of the Revolution are being replaced by a new worship of money. Salvation arrives in the form of a perplexing case: a former Marxist turned flamboyant Santería practitioner hires Conde to track down a stolen statue of the black Madonna, the Virgen de Regla.
Conde's investigation takes him on a journey through twenty-first century Havana and the distant past, reaching as far back as the Crusades. Through vignettes from the life of a Catalan peasant named Antoni Barral, who appears throughout history in various guises—a shepherd during the Spanish Civil War, a vassal to a feudal lord—the Madonna's provenance is traced to present-day Cuba. With Barral as Conde's alter ego, unstuck in time, Padura reminds us that we can never truly remain on the sidelines of history, no matter how obscure our role may seem.
Masterfully blending elements of The Name of the Rose and The Maltese Falcon, The Transparency of Time solidifies Leonardo Padura's position as the preeminent literary crime writer of our era. This gripping crime novel in translation from the acclaimed author of the Mario Conde series that inspired Netflix's Four Seasons in Havana is a must-read for fans of historical mysteries and private detective fiction.
As Mario Conde approaches his sixtieth birthday, he grapples with a failing body, a slowing mind, and a Cuba where the ideals and failures of the Revolution are being replaced by a new worship of money. Salvation arrives in the form of a perplexing case: a former Marxist turned flamboyant Santería practitioner hires Conde to track down a stolen statue of the black Madonna, the Virgen de Regla.
Conde's investigation takes him on a journey through twenty-first century Havana and the distant past, reaching as far back as the Crusades. Through vignettes from the life of a Catalan peasant named Antoni Barral, who appears throughout history in various guises—a shepherd during the Spanish Civil War, a vassal to a feudal lord—the Madonna's provenance is traced to present-day Cuba. With Barral as Conde's alter ego, unstuck in time, Padura reminds us that we can never truly remain on the sidelines of history, no matter how obscure our role may seem.
Masterfully blending elements of The Name of the Rose and The Maltese Falcon, The Transparency of Time solidifies Leonardo Padura's position as the preeminent literary crime writer of our era. This gripping crime novel in translation from the acclaimed author of the Mario Conde series that inspired Netflix's Four Seasons in Havana is a must-read for fans of historical mysteries and private detective fiction.
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About the author
Leonardo Padura was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1955. Author of The Man Who Loved Dogs and Heretics, his genre-bending literary crime novels featuring detective Mario Conde have been widely translated and form the basis for Netflix’s 2016 miniseries, Four Seasons in Havana.
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