The Price of Paradise by Susana Lopez Rubio: book review

The Price of Paradise (2019) is set in Havana, Cuba, from 1947 to 2005.

The narrator is 19-year-old Patricio Rubio Gamella, who has left a life of poverty in Spain for a better life in Cuba. He is a charming extrovert with a knack for sales. After a sales dare, he is rewarded with a job in the high-class luxury department store El Encanto, the place where wealthy locals and international celebrities shop.

His job is a runner—running errands for department staff: searching for merchandise in the storeroom, sweeping floors, cleaning windows, and minding a pack of poodles while their owner tries on hats. But no sales work.

Patricio sees legendary Hollywood stars and famous artists, such as Ava Gardner, Nat King Cole, and Ernest Hemingway.

He is captivated by an intelligent and beautiful customer, who enjoys talking to him. Gloria is the 25-year-old wife of César Valdés, a Cuban mobster.

Gloria is also a narrator in this novel. She tells of the time, at seven years old, when Albert Einstein, who was visiting Havana on his way to America, gave her a hat. And she tells of her marriage to the dangerous killer César Valdés.

Eventually, Patricio will pay the price of paradise.

This novel is not a sophisticated read, but the storyline is quite effective, given that most of it is set in a department store. It also maintains the suspense to nearly the end. The twists of fate, the betrayals and murders, from perfumed paradise to revolutionary Cuba, are enough to keep readers interested.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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