Dancing to "Almendra"

Young Cuban journalist Joaquin Porrata believes there is a direct connection between the assassination of Mafia boss Albert Anastasia and the bizarre discovery of the corpse of a hippopotamus in the Havana zoo, but as he tries to unravel the mystery, Joaquin finds himself caught up in a story of love, murder, and organized crime as the Underworld fights for control of lucrative casino operations in pre-Castro Cuba.

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.