Muerte de un murciano en La Habana

Resembling a tragic zarzuela, this novel is narrated largely through the primary characters’ interior monologs, replete with earthy language. The setting is a bleak contemporary Cuba where sex tourism is rampant and the best one can hope for is salvation through foreign intervention. It is also a cautionary tale: condescending European sophistication is simply no match for the Cubans’ desperate bricolage. Left behind by friends who have escaped the privations of the island, brokenhearted Maricari consults with Mercedes/Teo, an ostensibly gay transvestite who claims to communicate with spirits. The spirits respond to Maricari’s pleas by sending her Pío, a Spaniard 40 years her senior, who buys her food and finer things. The spirits’ services are costly to all concerned, however, and while they disdain dilettantes like Mercedes, they unleash their wrath on those who disrespect the faithful. As the title foretells, poor, impious Murcian Pío gets the worst of it.