Daína Chaviano (Author)

In this interview with independent Cuban journalist Reinaldo Escobar, Daína Chaviano talks about the role of fantasy in her life and work: "Much of Cuban literature has investigated our history following the same old pattern. The same themes are repeated, using the same codes. I wanted to break away from that orthodoxy. So I decided to use tools from other genres in order to draw a different portrait of my city and my country. I had no idea where the experiment might lead. I was afraid the novel would be difficult to follow, that many publishers would reject it because it didn't follow the conventional norms of classification that the market has established - something all publishers look for. Many of them have a predetermined notion of what a 'Cuban' novel should be like." (Complete text in PDF).