Two men of very different cultures--American herpetologist Victor Griggs and his Haitian guide, Thierry Adrien--embark on a obsessive odyssey through the mountains of Haiti in search of a mysterious amphibian, the blood frog. First serial, Conjunctions. Tour.

In the Palm of Darkness

Literature & Fiction

Montero, Mayra

Grossman, Edith

Contemporary

Harpercollins

An suspenseful reimagining of an incident in singer Enrico Caruso's life follows his adventures after fleeing a bomb explosion in Havana when, fearing the Black Hand's vengeance, he becomes involved with a Chinese-Cuban woman who has a powerful godfather.

The Messenger

Literary

HarperFlamingo

The quest for an elusive amphibian in the mountains of violence-torn Haiti brings together an unlikely pair of hunters--American herpetologist Victor Grigg and his Haitian guide, Thierry Adrien--whose individual stories unfold and intertwine in a mesmerizing tale of love, sex, and fraternal rivalry; of the propagation and extinction of species in the natural world; and of the mysterious forces of nature that govern the fate of all living creatures. 
 In the Palm of Darkness is a compelling tale that reads like a murder mystery but also reveals a highly sophisticated and refined literary voice.

In the Palm of Darkness: A Novel

United States

Harper-perennial

Set in Cuba, The Messenger tells the story of a pair of doomed lovers-world-famous tenor Enrico Caruso and his Chinese-Cuban mullatta mistress. In June 1920 a bomb exploded at the Teatro Nacional in Havana at the very moment that Enrico Caruso was singing Radamès in the opera AÏda. In a panic, he fled the theater and disappeared into the streets of Havana. What happened to him is the story imagined by Mayra Montero. As Caruso tries to escape the murderous agents of the Black Hand, he is drawn into a passionate love affair with Aida Cheng, a woman whose godfather is the powerful Afro-Cuban santero José de Calazán. Told by Enriqueta, the daughter born of the love affair, and by Aida herself as she lies dying many years later, The Messenger unfolds its mysteries against the rhythms of African santería and Chinese folk magic and weaves a brooding, compelling tale of love and death.

Messenger, The

HarpPeren

Celia and Fernando, a couple suddenly alone after their only daughter marries, embark on a cruise to the Caribbean islands to revitalize their own sagging marriage. With the complicity of another passenger, the mysterious Julieta, Celia and Fernando lose themselves and their inhibitions as they turn to others to fulfill their fantasies of passion and destruction. As visitors on exotic soils, made delirious by the heat and their own heady lusts, the aging lovers mix fantasy and reality until their wild adventure burns itself out, nearly taking them with it.

Last Night I Spent With You, The

Romance

For the distinguished critic Agustín Cabán, music is indispensable to sexual emotion. Forced to retire from his San Juan newspaper, Agustín is writing his memoirs, which describe his long career seducing the women and men who were among the most brilliant classical musicians in the world.The Australian pianist Clint Verret offered a passionate and tender interlude. Clarissa Berdsley, the French horn player, was submissive and playful. The flamboyant violinist Manuela Suggia turned out to be a vengeful and demonic lover.
In Deep Purple, Mayra Montero explores the relationship between sexual desire and music. For Agustín Cabán ultimately finds, in that deep and mysterious place that is the core of human sexuality, nothing less than the meaning of life.

Deep Purple

Erotica

Celia and Fernando, a long-married couple, embark on a Caribbean cruise in order to revitalize their fading marriage, but their voyage takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious passenger named Julieta leads them to lose their inhibitions and turn to others to fulfill their dark and passionate fantasies.

The Last Night I Spent with You: A Novel

It is Holy Week, and the Haitian sugar cane harvesters can temporarily forget their misery and lose themselves in the fervor of Voudon. But amidst the colorful festival, a struggle for power, as well as a devastating passion, develops between Mistress Zulé, a Voudon priestess and spiritual leader, and the infamous, bloodthirsty Similá Bolosse, a rival Voudon priest backed by the tontons macoutes.
Based on true events, The Red of His Shadow evokes ferocious love, intense hatred, and the specter of death looming within life. Written in a prose remarkable for its clarity and musicality, the novel manages to be both richly symbolic and intensely physical. Behind a case that Dominican police closed as a simple crime of passion pulses the spell of a war that remains unfinished today.

The Red of His Shadow: A Novel

Perennial

Forced into retirement, San Juan music critic Augustfn Cabßn begins writing about his seductions of the world's most noted classical musicians, recounts in lavish description each lover's erotic style, and considers the relationship between music and sexual desire. 10,000 first printing.

Deep Purple: A Novel

Ecco

From the author of The Last Night I Spent With You comes "a captivating tale of love, politics, and death" (The Charlotte Observer)
For fifty years, Andrés Yasin has carried a grudge against J. T. Bunker. Now eighty-three-years-old and dying, Bunker wants to tell his side of the story, the story of his affair with Estela, Andrés's mother. As a child Andrés knew Bunker as the "Captain of the Sleepers"--so called because he transported back to Vieques those who had died on the mainland but wished to be buried at home. But what really happened between Bunker and Estela, and between Estela and her one true love, a leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Movement? What did Andrés witness, and what were the real circumstances of his mother's mysterious death?
Beautifully translated by Edith Grossman, Captain of the Sleepers is a startling tale of remembrance and reality, and Mayra Montero's finest book yet.

Captain of the Sleepers: A Novel

Picador

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