Adios Muchachos - Softcover

Daniel Chavarrķa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852428295 ISBN 13: 9781852428297

Publisher: Serpents Tail, 2003

Synopsis

The beautiful Alicia hatches a plot to ensnare the wealthy foreign visitors to Castro?s Cuba through an elaborate scam involving a broken bicycle and her voluptuous charms. Taking choreographed spills in front of expensive foreign cars, Alicia squeezes the maximum sympathy and cash out of her clueless, sexually aroused, victims. Add to this mix the guile of her mother who is in on the scam, and the sky?s the limit for Alicia. However, when she attempts to trap Victor, a convicted bank robber masquerading as a Canadian businessman, they quickly realise each other?s nefarious motives and embark on a misadventure of sex, cross-dressing, kidnapping and death by olive. Adios Muchachos is an erotic, brutally funny romp through the underworld of post-revolutionary Cuba.

About this title

About the Author:

Born in Uruguay, Daniel Chavarria was for many years Professor of Latin, Greek, and Classical literature, devoting much of his time and energy to researching the origins and evolution of prostitution. He has won numerous literary awards around the world including the 1992 Dashiell Hammett Award and the 2002 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original for Adios Muchachos.

From Publishers Weekly:

Fun, fast and intelligent, this devilishly charming import gives pulp fiction a good name. Hailed as one of the best Latin writers, Uruguayan-born Chavarr”a is well known throughout Europe as well as in Latin America. He has won literary prizes around the world, including the 1992 Dashiell Hammett Award; this able translation by Carlos Lopez is the first to bring Chavarr”a to an English-speaking audience. The story, a madcap caper full of twisted sex, devious schemes and high-rolling hijinks, also showcases Chavarr”a's considerable scholarly research into prostitution. When Alicia, a crafty, bicycle-riding Havana hooker in present-day Cuba, meets Victor, a convicted bank robber masquerading as an upstanding businessman, they quickly realize each other's mutually nefarious motives and wind up in a business pact that leads to larceny, kidnapping and death. Despite the dark subject matter, the winking delivery provides comic surges as reliably as an amusement park ride. Readers are kept off balance by surprise twists and rolling punches but riveted by the sheer force of curiosity and entertainment. Linguistic and cultural tidbits illuminate the intelligence at work behind the bawdy and raw story, while the narrative reveals the exploitative nature of economic forces at work in Cuba. Lines blur between victim and victimizer as Chavarr”a reveals a symbiosis in which wealthy foreigners exploit the country's resources (from sunken galleons to beautiful women) and the Cubans in turn exploit foreigners' resources. But Chavarr”a never loses sight of his goal: to deliver an energetic hustle that will leave readers clamoring for more. (June)Forecast: The campy, vintage-style cover painting featuring Alicia posing provocatively on her bicycle will catch the eye of fans of the pulp genre; a dip between the covers will do the rest.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Serpents Tail
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1852428295
• ISBN 13: 9781852428297
• Binding: Paperback