Writer Leonardo Padura chronicles life in Cuba as his detective ‘alter ego’ solves gripping crimes

By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ
Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban writer Leonardo Padura has managed to turn his series of detective novels into a social and political chronicle of Cuba, especially his native Havana. Born in 1955, Padura studied literature at the University of Havana and worked as a journalist for state-owned media in the 1980s. He won Cuba’s National Prize for Literature, and in 2015 the Princess of Asturias Award for literature in Spain. The principal character of Padura’s work, Mario Conde, a downtrodden, nostalgic, chain-smoking detective Conde, was even featured in a Netflix miniseries in 2016. The Associated Press recently interviewed the writer at his home in Havana, as he is working on a still-untitled new work of fiction.