Correa,
Arnaldo. Spy’s Fate. Akashic Books. May 2002. c302p.
ISBN 1-888451-28-9. $24.95. Fiction.
A Cuban spy, caught between an old enemy in the CIA and his
own State Security Police faces a series of Kafkaesque twists
in Havana author Correa’s first
English-language novel. In 1994, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Carlos
Manuel returns from Africa to Havana to find everything changed. His wife has
committed suicide, his three children are estranged from their father, the country’s
economy is in shambles, and he himself is without a job or a home. When the kids
embark for the States on a raft, Carlos Manuel follows to protect them. The CIA,
meanwhile, learns that a high-ranking Cuban Intelligence officer has defected
but can’t find him. In time, the FBI, the CIA, and the Cuban Ministry of
the Interior are all in pursuit of the presumed defector. After spending time
in a Florida refugee camp and in Vermont, Carlos Manuel returns to Cuba, only
to find that every accident of fate is presumed to be part of an elaborate plot
of his own making. Though the novel’s tight threads slacken near the end,
this is an engrossing portrait, highly recommended for all public libraries.