Adiós Hemingway / Leonardo Padura Fuentes

Sparked off by the idea of 'death in literature' (a theme that also brought Stevenson under the Palm Trees to life), Adios Hemingway has two protagonists: the contemporary Conde, retired police detective and disillusioned writer, and the Hemingway of the late 1950s. When an ancient corpse is found buried on the grounds of Hemingway's Cuban estate, Conde is called in to investigate. What follows is a parallel discovery/uncovering of Hemingway's life and last years in Cuba, and of Conde's own life and his musings on Hemingway's writing. Parallel also are their drinking, writing, age, history, even their dogs. The action cuts between Conde's life and investigation, and Hemingway's life on the estate at the time of the apparent murder. In the heat-and-rum haze, the two seem to merge. We discover much more than simply what happened, or might have happened, on the dead man's last night. The eventual conclusion is fresh and satisfying, and we are left with Conde and his friends, swigging rum on the waterfront, throwing Hemingway's most-appealing souvenir - a pair of Ava Gardner's lacy knickers - out to the world in the empty bottle.

Translated from the Spanish to English.