Cuban Faces of 2015: Leonardo Padura, Writer / 14ymedio

Leonardo Padura at his home in Havana. (EFE / Alejandro Ernesto)
Leonardo Padura at his home in Havana. (EFE / Alejandro Ernesto)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 26 December 2015 — The creator of Detective Mario Conde enjoyed an extravagant 2015. In July he was awarded the Princess of Asturias Prize for Literature in recognition of his career as a novelist and journalist. During the ceremony, the writer acknowledged his “Three homelands”: Cuba, language and work.

Born in 1955 in Mantilla, Padura still lives in this Havana neighborhood and combines his work as a novelist with his passion for music and baseball. Although he received the National Literature Prize in 2012, his books have barely been published on the Island, but abroad he is considered one of the great masters of the thriller. He has also written screenplays for documentaries such as “From Son to Salsa,” which won the Coral Prize at the Havana Film Festival.

Author of titles such as “The Novel of my Life,” and “The Man Who Loved Dogs,” Padura will also have a successful 2016 with the debut of a Spanish television series based on his successful tetralogy made up of his books, Past Perfect (1991), Winds of Lent (1994), Masks (1997), and Autumn Landscape (1998).