The Cuban writer Leonard Padura visits Córdoba to present his new novel, Die in the arena, In Cántico Group LibraryThe event, which will be attended by the author and journalist Azahara Palomeque, will bring together readers and curious people in a meeting oriented towards dialogue and shared reading.
Published by tusquets in summer, the work proposes an intimate story that unfolds against a social backdrop: a family shaken by an old crime and an island experiencing hardship and discouragement. The title sums up, with a very powerful image, the feeling of having fought for years only to fall one step short of the goal.
A meeting in Córdoba and an old affinity
The Cordoba presentation will be held at the Cántico Group Library, in a conversation with Azahara Palomeque, a poet and storyteller with a solid track record in chronicles and essays. The activity is designed to bring the author's creative process closer and place the novel in dialogue with the public, a format that Padura especially values through direct contact with readers.
The writer maintains with Córdoba a close relationship dating back to his university years, when he researched the figure of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. Even before visiting the city, he was able to describe icons such as the Mosque and the Patio de los Naranjos From photographs, an anecdote that he often recalls with humor because of how much it reveals about the power of imagination.
In these quotes, Padura usually defends initiatives that expand access to literature and facilitate public conversation around books. And, as a curiosity of his own, he takes the opportunity to vindicate another of his passions: baseball, a sport that, along with music, has forged part of Cuba's popular imagination.
Those who attend the talk will be able to hear how it came about. Die in the arena, what were the materials that shaped their characters and what relationship does it have with other works of its author. The presence of Palomeque, with experience in poetry and journalism, promises a careful guide to unravel the book without spoiling its development.
Plot and keys to Dying in the Arena
The novel begins with news that unsettles a family: the release for medical reasons of Geni, nicknamed Crazy Horse, convicted in his youth of murdering his father. This return will force a reunion with the house where the crime occurred and reopen wounds that have never fully healed.
The protagonist is Rodolfo, the brother of the parricide, a man retiring with no prospects, marked by the past and the precariousness of the present. Around him orbit key figures: Nora (Geni's wife and Rodolfo's old love), the parents Fermín and Lola, the grandparents Quintín and Flora, and Smoker, a teenage friend who keeps uncomfortable secrets. Rodolfo's daughter and a young man who thrives amidst the daily shipwreck represent that new generation that seeks breathe out or survive on remittances.
Padura weaves domestic drama with a portrait of island life: persistent blackouts, rising prices and medicine shortages, a social climate that accompanies the clan's emotional earthquake. The story, inspired by a true event close to the author, explores guilt, memory and reparation, anchored in recognizable characters who try to sustain themselves daily.
The title works as a generational metaphor: those who swam for years, when they finally touched the sand, discovered that it was not the end of the effort but another obstacle. That melancholy—very Cuban, as Padura himself admits—seeps into every page with a humanistic gaze that prioritizes emotions and connections.
Although it shares a universe with the commissioner's novels Mario Conde, associated with the Novelty, here his presence is rather punctual. The tone shifts towards a social novel, with a moral investigation rather than a police one, in which the focus is not on a case but the fracture of a family and, in the background, the country's drifts.
Reception, creative freedom and tour of Spain
Padura, Princess of Asturias Award for Letters, enjoys a solid international reputation and a faithful readership of his titles starring Mario Conde. However, his circulation in Cuba has been irregular: several of his most recent novels have not had local editions or have appeared in poor quality. The author defends that literature should be written from freedom, even if it means inconvenience.
The tour of Die in the arena in Spain is registering full capacityIt began in Madrid with interviews and a presentation at the Telefónica Foundation, continued in Barcelona—with the Jaume Fuster Library auditorium packed—and continued through Zaragoza (Pablo Serrano Museum), Bilbao (Bidebarrieta Library), and Santander (Gil Bookstore), where readers waited to get a signature after the talk.
The author also participated in the Hay Festival of Segovia, 20th anniversary edition, in a dialogue focused on the cultural and social situation of the island and the creative challenges of his generation. There he participated in a conversation with a director of AECID, before returning to Madrid for a presentation at the Jarcha bookstore and an extensive signing session for the Christmas campaign. Upcoming stops will include Salamanca, Valladolid and various Andalusian cities.
In Córdoba, the conversation with Azahara Palomeque It will provide a suggestive reading from the perspective of poetry and essays, and will allow us to approach without haste the construction of characters, the narrative voice and the vision of Cuba that permeates the novel. Everything indicates that it will be a busy appointment for those who want to hear firsthand how a story is woven that combines pain, memory, and a stubborn desire to move forward.
With its mix of intimate drama and social insight, Die in the arena consolidates to Leonard Padura as a narrator capable of turning the Cuban experience in a universal story: a family pushed to its limits, a community dealing with scarcity, and a country that, after decades of effort, continues to search for a foothold without sinking into the sand.
