Cuban Writer Karla Suarez Wins Award

HAVANA TIMES — The novel La Havane annee zero, by Cuban writer Karla Suarez, who lives in Portugal, has been selected as the winner of the 2012 Carbet del Caribe Award, reported the Cubaencuentro website.

La Havane annee zero tells the story of five Cuban professionals who in 1993 are struggling to find a document showing that an Italian invented the telephone before Alexander Graham Bell.

This is the third novel by Karla Suarez after publishing Silencio (1999) and La viajera (2005). Many of her stories have appeared in anthologies and journals published in England, the United States, Finland, Iceland, Poland, France, Italy, Spain, Cuba and several Latin American countries.

The prestigious award, which annually recognizes “substantial contributions to West Indian writing,” was founded in 1990 by Edouard Glissant, of Martinique. Last year the award went to Cuban writer Leonardo Padura for his novel The Man Who Loved Dogs.