Translation into English of
Herejes (2013; see
HLAS 70:1620), one of the latest novels by renowned, award-winning Havana-based Cuban writer Leonardo Padura (b. 1955). An author of fiction and non-fiction and considered by many Cuba's best living writer, Padura is known for his detective novel series and, most recently, for the historical fiction master work
The Man Who Loved Dogs (2014; see
HLAS 70:2292). Combining historical and detective fiction,
Heretics narrates events surrounding the experience of Jewish refugee families in Havana during and after WWII. It centers on the disappearance of a Rembrandt painting - a portrait of Christ - brought to Cuba by one of the families traveling on the
S.S. Saint Louis in 1939 to seek asylum in Cuba, and the search for it by Elías, son of Daniel Kaminsky and one of the relatives who succeeded in settling in Cuba. For this search, he hires detective Mario Conde, protagonist of several of Padura's novels, who aids Kaminsky in the search throughout Cuba and all the way to an auction house in London. This handsome hardcover edition of the over 500-page work is described as an epic novel and also as "the story of modern Havana, a lost family history, and the origins of a notorious painting." Critically acclaimed, "this rich and brilliant evocation of Jewish history will only burnish the already extraordinary reputation of the author of the acclaimed
The Man Who Loved Dogs" (Elizabeth Fifer,
World Literature Today, September 2017). Remarking on the feat that is the translation of this novel, Jason Sheehan praises Anna Kushner's rendition given the challenges of "committing to the page these beautifully complicated thoughts, these gorgeously convoluted lines." He notes how carefully she renders Padura's sentences, "all of them are just as lovely. Just as weirdly sticky. Just as packed with meaning and sculpted with such care" (NPR book review, "Rum-Soaked, Bloody, Sprawling
Heretics Is A Romp Through Centuries," 19 March 2017). [HLAS Contributor: María Constanza Guzmán]