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OutcastBy José Latour Fiction | Trade paperback
*Out of Print, autographed, first editions available only from Akashic Books ($20). Click on ordering button below. "Terrifically suspenseful...Outcast is a remarkable novel." -Washington Post (10/12/99) Outcast has been nominated for three awards: -ANTHONY AWARD in the category of Best Paperback Original. -EDGAR AWARD in the category of Best Paperback Original. -FIRECRACKER ALTERNATIVE BOOK AWARD in the category of fiction. "José Latour is a master of Cuban Noir, a combination of '50s unsentimentality and the harsh realities of life in a Socialist paradise. Better, he brings his tough survivor to the States to give us a picture of ourselves through Cuban eyes. Welcome to America, Sr. Latour." -Martin Cruz Smith, author of Gorky Park The first Cuban crime novel to be written in English and published in the United States, Outcast is a smart, multi-voiced, savagely unsentimental tale that blends cultural critique, personal discovery, and explosive violence to reveal the callous, impersonal dysfunction of both contemporary Cuban socialism and its self-congratulatory free-market alternative in Miami. The son of a Cuban mother and a U.S. laborer stationed on the island before the revolution, the novelšs protagonist, Elliot Steil, is a down-and-out school teacher in Havana. Quietly resigned to the tedium and simplicity of his life, Elliot has, like many of his fellow Havanans, systematically distanced himself from all aspirations for a better future. Elliot's hopes suddenly resurface when he is offered a "once-in-a-lifetime" chance to escape his current situation by a mysterious visitor to the island who claims to be a friend of Elliot's late father. When the stranger quickly turns from savior to would-be assassin, Elliot finds himself perilously immersed in the waters of the Florida Straits and in the images of a past that he had spent most of his adult life trying to forget. Elliot survives the ordeal, but his journey to find the man who betrayed him and to discover the mystery of his bicultural past lure him into the heart of the Cuban underworld in Miami. "Cuba has been a closed world for most of us for decades now, and Cuban crime fiction has remained a well-kept secret. It's alive and well, and brilliantly represented by José Latour. Don't miss this one--it's terrific!" -Lawrence Block, author of Eight Million Ways To Die "Outcast is a tense, suspense-filled tale that will keep readers guessing until the final page. It is also an important and courageous book, a look at daily life in Cuba as few Americans have seen it, by a writer who still lives under the ever-watchful eye of the Revolution." -Edgar Award-winning author William Heffernan José Latour was born in Havana, Cuba in 1940, where he won his first literary prize at age thirteen. Outcast is his seventh novel, and his first written in English. Latour has traveled extensively in the United States, Eastern and Western Europe, Canada, and Mexico. He is the vice president of the Latin American division of the International Association of Crime Writers. He has two sons and a daughter, and lives in Havana with his wife. José Latour reads on MP3 |
