Firefly
by: Severo Sarduy / Mark Fried (Translator)

Softcover. NY, Archipelago Books, 1st transl., 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wrappers, 171 pages. Firefly is a dream-like evocation of pre-war Cuba, replete with hurricanes, mystical cults and slave-markets. The story is the coming-of-age of a precocious and exuberant boy with an oversized head and underdeveloped sense of direction, who views the world as a threatening conspiracy. Told in breathless and lyrical prose, the novel is a loving rendition of a long-lost home, a meditation on exile, and an allegory of Cuba's isolation in the world. Clean copy.