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This year’s prestigious Raymond Chandler Award, given to a master of the genre, goes to Cuban writer Leonardo Padura Fuentes, one of Latin America’s most interesting authors. He won over critics and readers alike with his cycle of novels The Four Seasons, which center on police lieutenant Mario Conde, a dry, practical character. His novels offer solidly constructed crime dramas in precise Cuban settings, and thus touch upon themes considered extremely thorny, such as the difficult conditions for homosexuals and corruption. For Padura Fuentes, the detective novel is a pretext for speaking of Cuban society and examining his generation’s conscience.
His writing reflects upon how Cuba has changed since the 1960s, when the crisis with the United States began, to today, when it is a tourist destination for many as the government struggles with the collapse of the socialist systems on which the relative well-being of the Caribbean island depended. His pessimistic vision can be summed up thus: “There are those who idealize [Cuba] and call it haven of social justice. And others who demonize it as a place of repression and lack of freedom. In other words, heaven and hell. As a man and writer, I can say that life in Cuba is neither heavenly nor infernal. Public health and education, for example, are guaranteed and defended. But there are tremendous financial difficulties and people struggle hard to earn an expendable income and live a life worth living.”
Despite his critical stance, he has always lived in the Havana neighborhood of Mantilla and loves his country deeply. And to those who erroneously think him a dissident, he responds: “Being a writer in Cuba is certainly difficult, but I choose to be a witness of the reality in which I live. I’m not interested in an ‘aseptic’ interpretation that does not take this into account. We Cubans have a strong sense of belonging to our culture, our land. Besides, an exile’s fate is always very painful. [...] Havana, the Mantilla neighborhood: my house and its garden, my dog, computer, book. With Lucia. I couldn’t live anywhere else.”
Leonardo Padura Fuentes (Havana, 1955) is a writer, journalist and screenwriter. His numerous literary awards include: the 13 de Marzo Essay Prize (1985); “80 aniversario de la revista Bohemia” Fiction Award (1988); the “Cirilo Villaverde” National Narrative Prize (1993) for Vientos de Cuaresma; in 1997, the “Café Gijón” International Literature Prize (Spain), International “Dashiell Hammett” Award and Critics Prize for Máscaras (1997); in 1998, the “Dashiell Hammett”, Premio de las Islas (France) and Critics awards for Paisaje de Otońo; in 2001-02, the “Casa de Teatro” International Literature Award (Dominican Republic) and the América Insular y la Guyana Award for La Novela de Mi Vida; in 2005, the Brigada 21 (Spain) and Dashiell Hammett for Best Spanish-Language Detective Novel awards for La Neblina del Ayer, and the Critics Prize the following year for the same novel.
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11/12/2009 ore 10:45
Centro Congressi |
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