Dancing to "Almendra"

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

Havana, 1957. On the same day that the Mafia capo Umberto Anastasia is assassinated in a barber's chair in New York, a hippopotamus escapes from the zoo and is shot and killed by its pursuers. Assigned to cover the zoo story, Joaquin Porrata, a young Cuban journalist, finds himself embroiled in the mysterious connections between the hippo's death and the mafioso's in this intoxicating story of murder, mobsters, and, finally, love.

Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
Published: 12/26/2007
Pages: 272
Weight: 0.7lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780312426736


Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 01/27/2008 pg. 20

About the Author

Mayra Montero is the author of a collection of short stories and of eight novels, including The Messenger, The Last Night I Spent with You, and Captain of the Sleepers. She was born in Cuba and lives in Puerto Rico, where she writes a weekly column in El Nuevo Dia newspaper.