Enrique Serpa

Enrique Serpa's first novel, Contraband, brilliantly depicts the turbulent and wretched world of Havana in the 1920s. Through the bustle of a crowd of fishermen, prostitutes, smugglers, and impoverished children, we see the smoldering embers of the fire that will engulf the island of Cuba, where the obscene wealth of a few mocks the extreme destitution of the majority. Contraband is also the story of a confrontation between the rather cowardly and delusional owner of La Buena Ventura, worn down by debauchery, and Requin.