{"product_id":"transparency-of-time-mario-conde-investigates-9","title":"Transparency of Time (Mario Conde Investigates, 9)","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom Leonardo Padura―whose crime novels featuring Detective Mario Conde form the basis of Netflix’s Four Seasons in Havana―The Transparency of Time sees the Cuban investigator pursuing a mystery spanning centuries of occult history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMario Conde is facing down his sixtieth birthday. What does he have to show for his decades on the planet? A failing body, a slower mind, and a decrepit country, in which both the ideals and failures of the Cuban Revolution are being swept away in favor of a new and newly cosmopolitan worship of money.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRescue comes in the form of a new case: an old Marxist turned flamboyant practitioner of Santería appears on the scene to engage Conde to track down a stolen statue of the Virgen de Regla―a black Madonna. This sets Conde on a quest that spans twenty-first century Havana as well as the distant past, as he delves as far back as the Crusades in an attempt to uncover the true provenance of the statue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThrough vignettes from the life of a Catalan peasant named Antoni Barral, who appears throughout history in different guises―as a shepherd during the Spanish Civil War, as vassal to a feudal lord―we trace the Madonna to present-day Cuba. With Barral serving as Conde’s alter ego, unstuck in time, and Conde serving as the author’s, we are treated to a panorama of history, and reminded of the impossibility of ever remaining on its sidelines, no matter how obscure we may think our places in the action.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEqual parts The Name of the Rose and The Maltese Falcon, The Transparency of Time cements Leonardo Padura’s position as the preeminent literary crime writer of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"mb-1 mt-2 whitespace-pre-line leading-relaxed first:mt-0\" data-sentry-component=\"P\" data-sentry-source-file=\"p.tsx\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDETAILS\u003c\/strong\u003e • Author: Leonardo Padura • Publisher: Picador USA • Format: Paperback\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Cedar Leaf Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45447617740844,"sku":"9781250849113","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0697\/2234\/1420\/files\/9781250849113.jpg?v=1775946074","url":"https:\/\/cedarleafbooks.com\/products\/transparency-of-time-mario-conde-investigates-9","provider":"Cedar Leaf Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}