Paradiso

Lezama Lima wrote a novel that is nearly impossible to read without effort and completely impossible to ignore. The prose is baroque to degrees that can drive readers to despair, but when it opens up it is like a burst of colour and intelligence. It is a coming-of-age novel that is also a treatise on Cuban culture, the body and desire, with nothing comfortable about any of it. For readers with patience and willingness to encounter an absolutely singular voice.