Cuban writer Leonardo Padura’s most recent novel Como polvo en el viento (Like dust in the wind) was launched in this city.

Cuban essayist and screenwriter Arturo Arango, who described the book as complex in terms of structure and plot, explained that it is about a group of young people whose strong bonds of friendship eventually go through pressures and changes during the so-called Special Period of the 1990s, which triggered a number of events that affect their lives and makes them scatter around, although they never gave up their roots.

Topics such as exile, departure from one’s land, life between two different geographical regions, and family relationships prevail in the work of the author of El hombre que amaba los perros (The man who loved dogs), who is a great character-builder—Mario Conde is the best paradigmatic example—as he proves once again in Como polvo…, based on dense and complicated individuals living in difficult, if historic, circumstances that fail to meet their expectations and bring them more frustration than satisfaction, Arango said.

Padura remarked that with this new book he tried once again to get in touch with reality and with the permanence and fixation of a culture the Cuban way, especially in the Havana way, that prevail among his characters.

“My interest is to represent the reality of my country because I have been a journalist for many years, so I think like a chronicler. I think I have succeeded in turning my novels into a chronicle of Cuban life in different periods," he said.

Leonardo Padura boasts national and international recognitions such as the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature (2015), the National Critics Award—eight times—and the National Novel Award given by the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC), among others.