Castro’s Cash Flow

Miami has plenty of expats who have spent time rotting in Cuban prisons. So when you hear of a novel titled Havana Harvest by somebody who has seen the inside of a Cuban clink, you figure the author is local or at least Cuban. But Robert Landori is neither. Now...

By Sebastian del MÃ¡rmol

September 2, 2010

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Miami has plenty of expats who have spent time rotting in Cuban prisons. So when you hear of a novel titled Havana Harvest by somebody who has seen the inside of a Cuban clink, you figure the author is local or at least Cuban. But Robert Landori is neither. Now living in Canada, the Hungarian-born author was not your typical political prisoner. He was an accountant working in Cuba in the ’60s who had close ties to Fidel’s bro and current Cuban President Raúl Castro. But when things soured, as they often do with dictators, El Comandante accused Landori of spying and threw him in jail.

But it wasn’t all bad, because his time behind bars inspired the bookkeeper to write a novel about the island nation’s climate of double-dealing, romance, and espionage. The book mirrors the real trial and execution of a well-known general, Arnaldo T. Ochoa Sánchez, who threatened the Castro regime and was executed in 1989. “Everything in the book is based on something I or those close to me experienced,” Landori says.
Wed., Sept. 15, 6:30 p.m., 2010

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