Tango for a Torturer

By Daniel Chavarría

Aldo Bianchi, a former Argentine revolutionary now living in Italy, travels to Havana, where he meets the beautiful Bini, a sultry student with great charm and panache working the hotels. Bianchi soon discovers via his liaison with Bini that his nemesis, the Uruguayan military torturer Alberto Ríos, is living under a false identity in Cuba. Putting his tropical holiday on hold, Bianchi goes on the hunt for his sadistic enemy.

Daniel Chavarría authentically portrays the sensuousness and skullduggery of contemporary Havana, a city that offers erotic thrills to pleasure-seeking tourists, even as it hides villains in its humid embrace. While Ríos thrives on bribery and corruption, Bianchi is driven by a desire to see justice done. Tango for a Torturer is a sexy and political thriller chock-full of bawdy humor and chilling evocations of the evils wrought by Latin American military dictatorships.

Daniel Chavarría, a former Tupamaros who hijacked a plane to fly himself to Havana in 1969, is a Uruguayan writer with two passions: classical literature and prostitutes. For years he was a professor of Latin, Greek, and classical literature, devoting much of his time and energy to researching the origins and evolution of prostitution. He has won numerous literary awards around the world, including the 1992 Dashiell Hammett Award and the 2002 Edgar Allan Poe Award. His novels Adios Muchachos and The Eye of Cybele are also published by Akashic Books. He lives in Havana.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Akashic Books
• Release date: May 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9781617750953

Daniel Chavarría

Daniel Chavarría was born in Uruguay in 1933. He spent the 1960s involved in several South American liberation struggles. He fled the continent and settled in Havana, Cuba, where he has resided since 1969. From 1975 to 1986, Chavarría worked as a translator of literature into Spanish, and taught Latin, Greek and Classical Literature at the University of Havana. His novels, short stories, literary journalism, and screenplays have reached audiences across Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Chavarría has won numerous literary awards around the world, including a 1992 Dashiell Hammett Award. Adios Muchachos is his first novel to be translated into English. In 2002, Akashic Books published his mystery novel, The Eye of Cybele, set in ancient Greece.

Reviews for Tango for a Torturer

[arubabookwoman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When Aldo, a wealthy former Argentinian now living in Italy is visiting a friend in Cuba, he recognizes the man who had tortured him and caused the death of his fiance. Aldo begins an elaborat scheme of revenge, unbeknownst to the torturer, utilizing the aid of his newest love, Bini, a happy-go-lucky prostitute.This book is cleverly plotted, and kept me, as the reader, constantly guessing as to where it was all going. It's a fast moving thriller, but also a fascinating look at life in (near) contemporary Havana. I really liked this book, and highly recommend it if it sounds like your thing.3 1/2 starsAn interesting sidenote about the author: he was a former Uruguayan revolutionary who hijacked a plane to take him to Cuba in 1959 where he lived for the remainder of his life.