{"product_id":"the-transparency-of-time-9781250849113","title":"The Transparency of Time","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom Leonardo Padura--whose crime novels featuring Detective Mario Conde form the basis of Netflix's \u003ci\u003eFour Seasons in Havana\u003c\/i\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Transparency of Time\u003c\/i\u003e sees the Cuban investigator pursuing a mystery spanning centuries of occult history.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMario Conde is facing down his sixtieth birthday. What does he have to show for his decades on the planet? A failing body, a slower mind, and a decrepit country, in which both the ideals and failures of the Cuban Revolution are being swept away in favor of a new and newly cosmopolitan worship of money. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRescue comes in the form of a new case: an old Marxist turned flamboyant practitioner of Santería appears on the scene to engage Conde to track down a stolen statue of the Virgen de Regla--a black Madonna. This sets Conde on a quest that spans twenty-first century Havana as well as the distant past, as he delves as far back as the Crusades in an attempt to uncover the true provenance of the statue. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThrough vignettes from the life of a Catalan peasant named Antoni Barral, who appears throughout history in different guises--as a shepherd during the Spanish Civil War, as vassal to a feudal lord--we trace the Madonna to present-day Cuba. With Barral serving as Conde's alter ego, unstuck in time, and Conde serving as the author's, we are treated to a panorama of history, and reminded of the impossibility of ever remaining on its sidelines, no matter how obscure we may think our places in the action. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEqual parts \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eName of the Rose\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eMaltese Falcon\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Transparency of Time\u003c\/i\u003e cements Leonardo Padura's position as the preeminent literary crime writer of our time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLeonardo Padura \u003c\/b\u003ewas born in Havana, Cuba, in 1955. Author of \u003ci\u003eThe Man Who Loved Dogs\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eHeretics\u003c\/i\u003e, his genre-bending literary crime novels featuring detective Mario Conde have been widely translated and form the basis for Netflix's 2016 miniseries, \u003ci\u003eFour Seasons in Havana\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Picador USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50533820039442,"sku":"9781250849113","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d2e72930-859d-4102-a09d-75c1390dbec3.jpg?v=1731413161","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-transparency-of-time-9781250849113","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}