A New York Times Book Review Editors'' Choice
Havana, 1957. On the same day that the Mafia capo Umberto Anastasia is assassinated in a barber''s chair in New York, a hippopotamus escapes from the zoo and is shot and killed by its pursuers. Assigned to cover the zoo story, Joaquin Porrata, a young Cuban journalist, finds himself embroiled in the mysterious connections between the hippo''s death and the mafioso''s in this intoxicating story of murder, mobsters, and, finally, love.
Less
Reflow text when sidebars are open.
