Mantilla, November 2009–March 2013
Acknowledgments
Like all my novels, this is a work to which other eyes, other intellects, many other sensibilities and assistance have decisively contributed.
As in previous years, three faithful and demanding readers have participated in the review of the different versions of the novel. Vivian Lechuga, here in Havana; Elena Zayas in Toulouse; and Lourdes Gómez, in Madrid, have made their time and energy as critics available to me, and I took full advantage of them. Likewise, my brother Alex Fleites saw himself forced to swallow many pages of the book.
During the variety of research projects carried out on the ground, and in the search for exact dates, I have found indispensable the collaboration, in Amsterdam, of my friends Sergio Acosta, Ricardo Cuadros, and Heleen Sittig, without whom I would not have had the understanding of this marvelous city; in Miami, meanwhile, my colleague Wilfredo Cancio and my old friend Miguel Vasallo, with whom I shared dreams of playing major league baseball, were my guides around Miami Beach, in search of Daniel Kaminsky’s footprints, and through Miami’s cemeteries, to find José Manuel Bermúdez’s tombstone.
An essential and invaluable contribution to understanding the ins and outs of Jewish customs and history was provided to me by Professor Maritza Corrales, the expert on Cuba’s old Jewish community; Marcos Kerbel, a Cuban Jew living in the United States, who drew for me the best map of Cuban-Jewish Miami Beach; my colleague Frank Sevilla, whose practical experience and intellectual knowledge of Judaism were critical to me; my dear Joseph Schribman, alias “Pepe,” a university professor in Saint Louis, Missouri, who frequently recalled for me his childhood and adolescent experiences in Havana’s Jewish community; and my old and good friend Jaime Sarusky, who was one of the engines who set this machine in motion. As for my dear fellow Stanilav Vierbov, he was the one responsible for placing in my hands the most complete and select bibliography that would allow me to understand what I could from a practical standpoint.
As on prior occasions, the reading and work discussions with my Spanish editors, Beatriz de Moura and Juan Cerezo, turned out to be saving and fortuitous, as much as their moral support, which was so necessary in the face of my hesitations. Likewise, the reading and opinions of Madame Anne Marie Métailié were decisively encouraging.
Finally, as is my habit, I would like to publicly thank Lucía López Coll, my wife, for her energies as a critic and her ability to withstand so much. Without her readings, opinions, lunches, and dinners, this book would not exist. And I don’t think that I would, either.
L.P.
Also by Leonardo Padura
The Man Who Loved Dogs
Adiós Hemingway
Havana Red
Havana Black
Havana Blue
Havana Gold
Havana Fever
A Note About the Author
Leonardo Padura was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1955. A novelist, journalist, and critic, he is the author of several novels, including The Man Who Loved Dogs, two volumes of short stories, and several nonfiction collections. His novels featuring the detective Mario Conde have been translated into many languages and have won literary prizes around the world. He is the recipient of the Raymond Chandler Award, the Cuban National Prize for Literature, and many other awards. He lives in Cuba. You can sign up for email updates here.
A Note About the Translator
Anna Kushner was born in Philadelphia and first traveled to Cuba in 1999. She has also translated the novels of Guillermo Rosales, Norberto Fuentes, and Gonçalo M. Tavares. You can sign up for email updates here.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Heretic Definition
Author’s Note
BOOK OF DANIEL
1. Havana, 1939
2. Havana, 2007
3. Kraków, 1648–Havana, 1939
4. Havana, 2007
5. Havana, 1940–1953
6. Havana, 2007
7. Havana, 1953–1957
8. Havana, 1958–2007
9. Havana, 1958
10. Havana, 2007
11. Miami, 1958–1989
12. Havana, 2007
BOOK OF ELIAS
1. New Jerusalem, Year 5403 Since the Creation, 1643 of the Common Era
2. New Jerusalem, Year 5405 Since the Creation, 1645 of the Common Era
3. New Jerusalem, Year 5407 Since the Creation, 1647 of the Common Era
BOOK OF JUDITH
1. Havana, June 2008
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Havana, July 2008
11.
12. Havana, August 2008
GENESIS
1. Havana, April 2009
Acknowledgments
Also by Leonardo Padura
A Note About the Author and Translator
Copyright
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2013 by Leonardo Padura
Translation copyright © 2017 by Anna Kushner
All rights reserved
Originally published in Spanish in 2013 by Tusquets Editores, Spain, as Herejes
English translation published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First American edition, 2017
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Padura, Leonardo, author.|Kushner, Anna, translator.
Title: Heretics / Leonardo Padura.
Other titles: Herejes. English
Description: First American edition.|New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017.|Translated by Anna Kushner.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016025617|ISBN 9780374168858 (hardback)|ISBN 9780374714284 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Jewish refugees—Germany—Fiction.|Art thefts—Investigation— Fiction.|Conde, Mario—Fiction.|Private investigators—Cuba—Havana— Fiction.|BISAC: FICTION / Literary.|FICTION / Historical.|GSAFD: Detective and mystery stories, Cuban.|Historical fiction.
Classification: LCC PQ7390.P32 H4713 2017|DDC 863/.64—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016025617dfd
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