Leonardo de la Caridad Padura Fuentes (born October 10, 1955) is a
Cuban novelist and journalist. , he is one of Cuba's best-known writers internationally. In his native Spanish, as well as in English and some other languages, he is often referred to by the shorter form of his name, Leonardo Padura. He has written screenplays, two books of short stories, and a series of detective novels translated into 10 languages. In 2012, Padura was awarded the
National Prize for Literature A National Prize for Literature ( es, Premio Nacional de Literatura) is a kind of award offered by various countries.
Examples include:
* National Prize for Literature (Argentina)
* National Literary Awards, Burma
* National Prize for Literature ( ...
, Cuba's national literary award and the most important award of its kind. In 2015, he was awarded the
Premio Principe de Asturias de las Letras of Spain, one of the most important literary prizes in the Spanish-speaking world and usually considered as the Iberoamerican Nobel Prize.
Life and career
Padura, who was born in
Havana, took a degree in
Latin American literature at the
University of Havana. In 1980 he first came to prominence as an investigative journalist in a literary magazine called ''
Caimán Barbudo'', a well-established publication that is still published today. He became known as an
essayist and a writer of
screenplays and in particular,
detective novel
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as spe ...
s.
He wrote his first short novel between 1983 and 1984. Titled ''
Fiebre de caballos'' (Horse Fever), it was basically a love story. During the next six years, he continued to work as a journalist, reporting on a wide range of cultural and historical topics. However, around this time he began to write his first novel featuring police officer Mario Conde. While he was writing it, Padura realised how fundamental his years as a journalist were to his development as a writer. Firstly it gave him a whole new experience of the country, and secondly, it changed his style with respect to his first book.
In 2013, France named him a ''Chevalier'' of the
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose i ...
.
Padura still lives and writes in his native city of Havana.
"In one of his essays entitled 'I would like to be Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include ''The New York Trilogy'' (1987), '' Moon Palace'' (1989), ''The Music of Chance'' (1990), '' The Book of Illusions'' (2002), '' The B ...
,' Padura complains that he would love not to be constantly asked about politics in his country and why he continues living there. But this is very much his niche: he is widely seen as the best writer in Cuba, a country whose best writers were all formed before Castro rule. He offers us an off-the-beaten-path visit of a relatively closed society, a prose that is free of propaganda (though not liberated from surveillance). By occupying a small but significant critical space in Cuba, Padura becomes more interesting for Cuba observers and more intriguing for students of cultural and literary trends in the island."
Mario Conde books
Padura is best known in the English-speaking world for his quartet of detective novels featuring lieutenant Mario Conde. Collectively titled ''Las cuatro estaciones'' (''The four seasons''), they are sometimes called ''The Havana Quartet'' in their English translations. Conde is a cop who would rather be a writer, and admits to feelings of "solidarity with writers, crazy people, and drunkards". These books are set respectively in winter, spring, summer and autumn (''Vientos de cuaresma'' literally means "Lenten Winds" and ''Paisaje de otoño'', "Autumn landscape"):
*''Pasado perfecto'' (1991, translated as ''Havana Blue'', 2007)
*''Vientos de cuaresma'' (1994, translated as ''Havana Gold'', 2008)
*''Máscaras'' (1997, translated as ''Havana Red'', 2005)
*''Paisaje de otoño'' (1998, translated as ''Havana Black'', 2006)
Padura has published five subsequent books featuring Conde, the
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
''Adiós Hemingway'', ''La neblina del ayer'' (''The Fog of Yesterday'', published in English as ''Havana Fever'')., ''La Cola de la Serpiente'' (''Grab a Snake by the Tail''), ''Herejes'' (''Heretics'') and ''La Transparencia del Tiempo'' (''The Transparency of Time''). ''Adiós Hemingway'' was Padura's first book to be translated into English, in 2005. Th
Havana-Cultura websitecomments on the similarities and differences between Padura and Hemingway, and how they might explain Padura's decision to feature the expatriate American in ''Adiós Hemingway''.
''Paisaje de otoño'' won the 1998
Premio Hammett of the
Asociación Internacional de Escritores Policiacos (International Association of Crime Writers). This prize should not be confused with the similarly named
Hammett Prize
The Hammett Prize is awarded annually by the International Association of Crime Writers, North American Branch (IACW/NA) to a Canadian or US citizen or permanent resident for a book in English in the field of crime writing. It is named after cri ...
given by the North American branch of the organization, which is restricted to United States and Canadian authors.
The four books were adapted as four
Spanish language television films, which have been released in a group with English subtitles as the
Netflix mini-series ''
Four Seasons in Havana''. They star Cuban actor
Jorge Perugorría
Jorge Perugorría Rodríguez (aka "Pichi," born 13 August 1965) is a Cuban actor, film director and painter. He is well known for his part as Diego in '' Strawberry and Chocolate'' (original title in Spanish ''Fresa y chocolate'' (co-directed by ...
and were produced by Tornasol Film.
An English-language remake named ''Havana Quartet'' was considered by
Starz, with
Antonio Banderas
José Antonio Domínguez Bandera (born 10 August 1960), known professionally as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish actor and singer. Known for his work in films of several genres, he has received various accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival ...
tagged to act as Conde, but it did not proceed beyond the development stage. In 2014, BBC Radio broadcast dramatizations of the four stories starring
Zubin Varla
Zubin Varla (born 1970) is a British actor and singer. He played the role of Judas in the 1996 West End revival of ''Jesus Christ Superstar'', alongside Steve Balsamo (Jesus), Joanna Ampil (Mary Magdalene), and David Burt (Pilate). This produ ...
.
Other works
Padura's historical novel ''El hombre que amaba a los perros'' (''The Man Who Loved Dogs'') deals with the 1940 murder of exiled Russian revolutionary
Leon Trotsky, and the man who assassinated him,
Ramon Mercader. At almost 600 pages, it is perhaps Padura's most ambitious and accomplished work and the result of more than five years of meticulous historical research. The novel, published in September 2009, attracted publicity mainly because of its political theme. The novel centres "on Stalin’s murderous obsession with Leon Trotsky, an intellectual architect of the Russian Revolution and the founder of the
Red Army", and considers "how revolutionary utopias devolve into totalitarian dystopias."
Padura's books are also available in French (including all the books featuring Conde), Italian,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
, German,
Greek, and
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
.
Bibliography
Books
*
* ''Pasado perfecto'', 1991 ("Havana Blue", 2007).
* ''Vientos de cuaresma'', 1994 ("Havana Gold", 2008).
* ''Máscaras'', 1997 ("Havana Red", 2005).
* ''Paisaje de otoño'', 1998 ("Havana Black", 2006).
* ''La novela de mi vida'', 2002.
* ''Adiós Hemingway'', 2005.
* ''La neblina del ayer'', 2005 ("Havana Fever", 2009).
* ''El hombre que amaba a los perros'', 2009 (''
The Man Who Loved Dogs
''The Man who Loved Dogs'' is a novel by Leonardo Padura and involves the complex political narratives that surround the assassination of Leon Trotsky by Ramon Mercader. The novel was a finalist for the Book of the Year Award in Spain. It was ...
'', 2014).
* ''La cola de la serpiente'', 2011.
*"''Regreso a Ítaca''" (Return to Itaca, 2016)
* ''Herejes'', 2013 ("Heretics", 2017).
*La transparencia del tiempo, 2018.
*''Como polvo en el viento'' ("Like Dust in the Wind, 2020)
* ''Personas decentes'', 2022.
Critical studies and reviews of Padura's work
*
* "How to Write from Mantilla, or the Small Heresies of Leonardo Padura," chapter 5 in Yvon Grenier, ''Culture and the Cuban State, Participation, Recognition, and Dissonance under Communism'' (Lexington Books, 2017).
References
Further reading
*Uxo, Carlos, ed. (2006). ''The Detective Fiction of Leonardo Padura Fuentes.'' Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University Press. . Articles in English and Spanish.
*Wilkinson, Stephen (2006). ''Detective Fiction in Cuban Society and Culture''. Oxford & Berne: Peter Lang. (US 0-8204-7963-2). This book contains four chapters on Padura and a history of the Cuban detective genre.
*González, Eduardo, (2006). ''Cuba and the Tempest: Literature and Cinema in the Time of Diaspora''. The University of North Carolina Press. . The long last section of this book is dedicated to Padura's four novels: ''Las cuatro estaciones,'' under the title: "1989: The Year that Never Was."
External links
*
*
Interview with Padura in Shots ezine"Perspectivismo y ficción en ''La novela de mi vida'': la historia como versión de sí misma"Artículo de Sonia Behar en ''Memoria histórica, Género e Interdisciplinariedad: Los Estudios Culturales Hispánicos en el siglo XXI''. Eds. Santiago Juan-Navarro y Joan Torres-Pou. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2007.
Interview about Cuba and crisis in Ukraine and Venezuela
{{DEFAULTSORT:Padura Fuentes, Leonardo
1955 births
Cuban male novelists
Cuban screenwriters
Male screenwriters
Cuban television writers
Crime fiction writers
Cuban crime fiction writers
Living people
Cuban journalists
Male journalists
Cuban essayists
Male essayists
Prix Roger Caillois recipients
Naturalised citizens of Spain
Male television writers
Cuban emigrants to Spain