Fiction. Latin American Studies. Translated from the Spanish by Al Schaller. Malabre is an upper middle-class Cuban businessman with an intellectual bent. He chooses to remain in Cuba after the Bay of Pigs without his family and friends. Dissatisfied with his life, he hopes to find a more authentic existence. To break his crippling isolation, he has an affair with a young girl, which culminates in his trial for statutory rape. Desnoes is also the author of No Hay Problema (There Is No Problem) and El Cataclismo (The Cataclysm).