When a human skeleton is discovered on Ernest Hemingway's home in Havana, police inspector Mario Conde is called up out of retirement to unearth the truth. In the course of his investigations, Conde gradually reconstructs the mysterious goings-on of the night of 3rd October 1958 and in doing so is forced to come to terms with a very different side to the character of his former literary hero. Padura Fuentes cleverly cuts between Conde's world and that of Hemingway's Cuba four decades earlier. In the heat and rum haze, the two seem slowly to merge as the reader is taken on an extraordinary journey into the past and into the personality of one of the twentieth century's most enigmatic and interesting writers. It's a masterful and totally convincing portrait that emerges, as well as a riveting mystery that keeps the reader on tenterhooks until the very final pages.

El primer fin de semana de 1989 una insistente llamada de telefono arranca de su resaca al teniente Mario Conde, un policia esceptico y desenganado. El Viejo, su jefe en la Central, le llama para encargarle un misterioso y urgente caso: Rafael Morin, jefe de la Empresa de Importaciones y Exportaciones del Ministerio de Industrias, falta de su domicilio desde el dia de Ano Nuevo. Quiere el azar que el desaparecido sea un ex companero de estudios de Conde, un tipo que ya entonces, aun acatando las normas establecidas, se destacaba por su brillantez y autodisciplina. Por si fuera poco, este caso enfrenta al teniente con el recuerdo de su antiguo amor por la joven Tamara, ahora casada con Morin. El Conde -asi le conocen sus amigos-, ira descubriendo que el aparente pasado perfecto sobre el que Rafael Morin ha ido labrando su brillante carrera ocultaba ya sus sombras.

A journalist and assistant in a veterinary clinic, flashes back towards an episode in his life when he met a man who used to walk by the beach with two Russian dogs. After several meetings, the man said Jaime Lopez was his name, and began to tell him his confidences focusing on the figure of Trotsky's murderer, Ramon Mercader, of whom he claims have been friends.

This unusual collaboration between a Cuban novelist and a Canadian professor offers uncensored and frank interviews with prominent figures of contemporary Cuban cultural life, from a Grammy-winning jazz artist to world-class filmmakers and actors, writers, ballet dancers, and dramatists.

In recent years the small island, with a population of just 11 million, has experienced an astonishing cultural renaissance. The immense popularity of the movies Buena Vista Social Club and Strawberry and Chocolate, the successful international tours of the National Ballet of Cuba, and a host of literary prizes in Spain and Latin America attest to this phenomenon.

The thirteen people interviewed played a leading role in cultural life during the years of the revolutionary process and today are considered official Cuban figures -- Silvio Rodriguez, Anton Arrufat, Alicia Alonso, Abelardo Estorino, Chucho Valdes, Pablo Armando Fernandez, Leo Brouwer, Nancy Morejon, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, Roberto Fabelo, Frank Fernandez, Fernando Perez, and Jorge Perugorria. They discuss a range of topics -- their own work and limits on it, the challenge of producing art in a poor country, and threats of censorship. All state categorically that they feel a profound sense of national identity and an acute awareness of their role as cultural symbol.

Together, these candid interviews offer a unique perspective on the artist and intellectual in socialist society and an overview of the dynamic expression of popular culture in Cuba today.

A woman was beaten, raped and then strangled with a towel. Marijuana is found in her apartment and her wardrobe is suspiciously beyond the means of a high school teacher. Grand buildings and secrets hidden behind faded doors and corruption. This story in Cuba, its life of sex, music and great friendships as it is a story of a murder investigation.