Daniel Chavarría

Adios Muchachos

Alicia is a smart, confident and gorgeous prostitute in Havana. She is not a street-walker. Rather, she displays her wares on bicycle, seducing men through the irresistible pull of her fine "derriere." John King, her new client, is a Canadian businessman with a striking resemblance to movie star Alain Delon. This is no ordinary "John" and Alicia's feelings for him grow; she sees in their relationship the possibility of escape from her dead-end life in a Havana plagued with scarcity. When John King's wealthy and sexually deviant boss is suddenly killed, Alicia and John hatch a get-rich-quick scheme. A web of deception is woven, but just as quickly unraveled disastrously, and only one person is able to say "adios" to the dilapidated island of Cuba. Daniel Chavarria was born in Uruguay in 1933. He spent the 1960s involved in several South American liberation struggles. He fled the continent and settled in Havana, Cuba, where he has resided since 1969. From 1975 to 1986, Chavarria worked as a translator of literature into Spanish, and taught Latin, Greek and Classical Literature at the University of Havana. His novels, short stories, literary journalism, and screenplays have reached audiences across Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Chavarria has won numerous literary awards around the world, including a 1992 Dashiell Hammett Award. "Adios Muchachos "is his first novel to be translated into English. In 2002, Akashic Books will publish his mystery novel, "The Eye of Cybele," set in ancient Greece.