The Quest

The Quest is Jaime Sarusky Miller's inaugural novel, first published in 1961.The story offers a superb panorama of 1949 Havana, capturing its incandescent atmosphere of music, decay, and hope. Expert characterization, vivid description, and the portrayal of an entire era make this narrative a book rich in surprises, drama, and humor.

The story involves a flutist in a typical Havana dance band circa 1949 who decides he'd rather be playing Mozart than Guaguancó. Told 'a lo Cubano', the tale unravels on the streets, tenements, beaches, and cafes of Havana, and is a realistic, vivid. colorful, humorous, and poignant depiction of life in the Cuban capital during the years prior to the start of the revolution.

"Based on its opening-a quote from Sartre's La Nausée, which a cautious publisher removed from the 1982 edition-the work was branded 'existentialist and decadent,' terms that carried a negative stigma during the now-distant 1960s." (Ciro Bianchi Ross, La Gaceta, 2005) This volume presents a new annotated translation of the unexpurgated 4th Edition of 2003.

Sarusky Miller was awarded the Alejo Carpentier Prize in 2001, and the National Literature Prize of Cuba in 2004.