Author(s): Karla Suarez ; Christina MacSweeney (Translator)

Novel | Cuba | Translated fiction | Humour & Satire | Crime and Thriller | Charco Press

It was as if we'd reached the minimum critical point of a mathematical curve. Imagine a parabola. Zero point down, at the bottom of an abyss. That's how low we sank.

The year is 1993. Cuba is at the height of the Special Period, a widespread economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet bloc.For Julia, a mathematics lecturer who hates teaching, this is Year Zero: the lowest possible point. But a way out appears: the search for a missing document that will prove the telephone was invented in Havana, secure her reputation, and give Cuba a purpose once more. What begins as an investigation into scientific history becomes a tangle of sex, friendship, family legacies, and the intricacies of how people find ways to survive in a country at its lowest ebb.

Review:

English PEN (Award)
Carbet de la Caraibe et du Tout-monde (Winner)
Insular Book Award (Winner)

"A breezy, engaging and cunningly plotted tour of a resilient city and culture. (4 stars)" -The Arts Desk

"A terrifically enjoyable read." -Irish Times

"Equal parts historical novel, comedy of errors and detective story, Suarez portrays with extraordinary voluptuousity and suggestiveness one of the toughest periods of this Caribbean island." -El Mundo

"An astonishing novel." -Le Figaro Litteraire

"'The Name of the Rose' Cuban-style...A masterpiece." -Marie Claire

"A brilliant, intense mystery." -BookBlast

"A delightfully unusual detective story." -Shiny New Books

"Suarez's prose, and Christina MacSweeney's translation, is conversational, beautifully written and manages wonderfully to evoke Havana as a city in crisis without the situation seeming hopeless." -The Sock Drawer

"A magisterial and innovative demonstration of first-person narration." -Reading in Translation

"Suarez's sharp, engaging prose grows organically out of a clear and unique narrative voice." -Necessary Fiction

"Quirky, poignant, and very relevant for our times." -Lucy Writers

"Havana Year Zero is like a set of Russian dolls; its many layers fit together in a firm and satisfying way." -Lunate

Author Biography:

Karla Suarez was born in Havana in 1969. In 2007 she was selected by Hay Festival to be part of the Bogota 39 and in 2019, she received the Premio Iberoamericano Julio Cortazar. Havana Year Zero (originally published in 2011) is her third novel.

Christina MacSweeney received the 2016 Valle Inclan prize for her translation of Valeria Luiselli's The Story of My Teeth, and her translation of Daniel Saldana Paris' Among Strange Victims was a finalist for the 2017 Best Translated Book Award. Other authors she has translated include: Elvira Navarro (A Working Woman), Veronica Gerber Bicecci (Empty Set; Palabras migrantes/ Migrant Words), and Julian Herbert (Tomb Song; The House of the Pain of Others).