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Our man down in Havana : the story behind Graham Greene's Cold War spy novel

Hull, Christopher, 1965-2019
Books, Manuscripts
When U.S. immigration authorities deported Graham Greene from Puerto Rico in 1954, the British author made an unplanned visit to Havana and discovered that 'every vice was permissible and every trade possible' in a Caribbean fleshpot of mafia-run casinos and nude revues. The former MI6 officer had stumbled upon the ideal setting for a comic espionage story. Three years later, he returned in the midst of Fidel Castro's guerrilla insurgency against a U.S.-backed dictator to begin writing his iconic novel 'Our Man in Havana'. 12 weeks after its publication, the Cuban Revolution triumphed in January 1959, soon transforming a capitalist playground into a communist stronghold. Combining biography, history and politics, this book investigates the real story behind Greene's fictional one.
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