"I devoured it with absolute delight, and I'm looking forward to reading it again, and to reading anything Montero might come up with next."--The New York Times Book Review
"Montero exploits true crime, romance, family drama, cabaret, and even danzón. . . . Her new novel is a hell of a song."--San Francisco Chronicle
"[Montero] has crafted a story of pre-revolutionary Havana that crackles with violence, mystery, and a truly eccentric view of love. Imagine Raymond Carver crossed with Oscar Hijuelos's The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love."--O, The Oprah Magazine
"An extremely stylish novel . . . Montero is an energetic writer and Grossman's translation renders her prose into a wry, bawdy, delicious rhythm. . . . Here is a story of [Montero's] native country, marching toward the future one murder, one one-night stand, one dead hippo at a time. It's even more fun than it sounds."--The Star-Ledger (Newark)
"Montero has delivered a well-written, cinematic story that fairly steps off the page. Think Chinatown set in the late 1950s, pre-Castro Cuba."--The Plain Dealer
"Masterful . . . What a story! Montero has played her usual sleight of hand."--
Houston Chronicle
