"[A] future cult classic." (The New York Times Book Review)
"There's Borges and Bolaño, Kafka and Cortázar, Modiano and Murakami,
and now Laura van den Berg." (The Washington Post)
An August 2018 IndieNext Selection. Named a Summer 2018 Read by The
Washington Post, Vulture, Nylon, Elle, BBC, InStyle,
Refinery29, Bustle, O, the Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly,
Harper's Bazaar, Conde Nast Traveler, Southern Living, Lit Hub,
and Vol. 1 Brooklyn.
In Havana, Cuba, a widow tries to come to terms with her husband's
death - and the truth about their marriage - in Laura van den Berg's
surreal, mystifying story of psychological reflection and metaphysical
mystery.
Shortly after Clare arrives in Havana, Cuba, to attend the annual
Festival of New Latin American Cinema, she finds her husband, Richard,
standing outside a museum. He's wearing a white linen suit she's never
seen before, and he's supposed to be dead. Grief-stricken and baffled,
Clare tails Richard, a horror film scholar, through the newly
tourist-filled streets of Havana, clocking his every move. As the
distinction between reality and fantasy blurs, Clare finds grounding in
memories of her childhood in Florida and of her marriage to Richard,
revealing her role in his death and reappearance along the way. The
Third Hotel is a propulsive, brilliantly shape-shifting novel from an
inventive author at the height of her narrative powers.
