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Daunt Books Children's Short Story Competition 2013

Central America & Caribbean

• Mexico
• Central America
• Caribbean

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  Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961 by Paul Hendrickson

  Price: £9.99    Add to Basket

  The fishing boat that Hemingway used to trawl the Caribbean for blue-fin tuna during the last 27 years of his life was perhaps the only thing he ever loved purely in his lifetime. It saw him through three marriages, winning the Nobel Prize, alcoholism and a deeply ambivalent relationship with his son Gigi - a brilliant doctor and transvestite. In this profoundly beautiful biography, Hendrickson uses the motif of Hemingway's beloved boat to navigate the complexities of this volatile, conflicted man - his pleasures, weaknesses and insecurities.

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  Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure by Artemis Cooper

  Price: £25.00    Add to Basket

  Drawing on years of interviews and conversations with Leigh Fermor and his closest friends, this beautifully crafted biography portrays a man of extraordinary gifts - widely considered to be the greatest travel writer of our time.

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  The Queen of Whale Cay by Kate Summerscale

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  Summerscale, of more recent 'Mr. Whicher' fame, was writing obituaries for the Telegraph when she came upon the extraordinary story of 'Joe' Carstairs, a unique character who became a leading light in the glamorous lesbian demi-monde of the 1920s. Tiring of her celebrity Carstairs bought the Bahamian island of Whale Cay, to which she retreated, creating her own eccentric kingdom. This is a magnificently researched and highly entertaining biography of a character that was truly stranger than fiction.

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  Cuba Confidential: The Extraordinary Tragedy of Cuba, its Revolution and its Exiles by Ann Louise Bardach

  Price: £9.99    Add to Basket

  An insightful work of investigative journalism in which Bardach exposes the compelling truth of the ongoing, bloody vendetta between Miami and Havana that has persisted since Castro's rise to power. Drawing on first-hand accounts from both sides, and from both victims and perpetrators, this is a provocative portrait of Cuba that exposes some of the unglamorous realities behind its charming facade.

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  A History of Barbados: From Amerindian Settlement to Caribbean Single Market by Hilary McD Beckles

  Price: £15.99    Add to Basket

  Beckles paints a vivid, unbiased portrait of Barbadian history from settlement, through colonisation, slave trading, independence and late 20th century nationalism. Scholarly and informed, he perhaps indulges in more economic analysis than the average reader needs, but his book remains the finest of its kind.

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  A Visit to Don Otavio by Sybille Bedford

  Price: £12.99    Add to Basket

  A classic of travel writing, Sybille Bedford's account of the uncomfortable journeys, the desolate expanses of desert and rich, deep jungles of Mexico, is charming, poetic and colourful.

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  The Country Under My Skin by Gioconda Belli

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  The remarkable, romantic memoir of Gioconda Belli, Nicaraguan high-society girl, acclaimed author and revolutionary.

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  Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara by Jorge Castaneda

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  Slightly heavy going, but balanced and well-researched biography which releases this Argentinean idealist from mythology.

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  My Life by Fidel Castro

  Price: £12.99    Add to Basket

  Taking the form of an extended, transcribed conversation with his biographer Ignacio Ramonet, this is a hugely readable and fascinating account of Castro's life in his own words. Revelling in his astonishing erudition and formidable self-belief, the Cuban leader recounts his remarkable story in epic detail.

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  School Days by Patrick Chamoiseau

  Price: £11.99    Add to Basket

  A slender yet captivating account of the author's Martinique childhood, this warm-hearted memoir is awash with linguistic play and offers a revelatory glimpse of the colonial Caribbean.

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  Born in Blood & Fire by John Charles Chasteen

  Price: £30.99    Add to Basket

  The most recent history of Latin America from 1492, which focuses on Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Illustrated with black and white photographs and maps, the style is accessible and lively making this the perfect introduction to a traveller or student.

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  The Maya by Michael D. Coe

  Price: £9.95    Add to Basket

  A concise, scholarly guide to the history, culture, philosophy and the survival of the Mayan people. Includes luxurious colour photographs and black and white illustrations of the art, jewellery and the ruins.

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  Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat

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  A moving, intimate portrait of a family of Haitian immigrants and the devoted uncle they left behind.

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  Salvador by Joan Didion

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  A sharply-written, explosive piece of journalism from Joan Didion as she reports from El Salvador in 1982 at the crescendo of a brutal civil war. Vivid, haunting and incredibly powerful.

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  Cuba In Mind by Maria Finn Dominguez, Ed.

  Price: £11.99    Add to Basket

  A magnificent anthology - comprising poetry, fiction and non-fiction - that offers a varied insight into the many charms and challenges of Cuba. Authors included here range from expat greats like Hemingway, Ginsberg and Trollope to local writers like Alma Guillermoprieto. Essential holiday reading.

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  Havana: Autobiography of a City by Alfredo Jose Estrada

  Price: £11.99    Add to Basket

  Passionate and knowledgeable, Estrada has written a stunning portrait of the city, covering everything from the arrival of Columbus and his crew to Hemingway's favourite end of the bar at La Bodeguita. Of great interest regardless of whether one is planning a trip, but crucial in that event.

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  The Traveller's Tree: A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands by Patrick Leigh Fermour

  Price: £9.99    Add to Basket

  Fermour's leisurely 1940s sojourn through the islands is richly recounted, alive with colourful quotidianness, infused with lush nature and filled with remarkable characters. His luminous poise is present on every page, and the era he captured now all the more interesting for having passed.

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  Mexico in Mind by Maria Finn

  Price: £11.99    Add to Basket

  The perfect companion for any traveller, this is an anthology of writings about Mexico from two centuries of literature. From Graham Greene's defence of Mexican priests to an extract from John Steinbeck's The Pearl, see Mexico through the eyes of some of the greatest modern writers.

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  Viva Mexico! by Charles Flandrau

  Price: £12.99    Add to Basket

  A wonderful Eland edition of Charles Flandrau's account of the five years he spent in Mexico at the end of the 19th century. Humorous, engaging and insightful, he described the country as "one long carelessly written but absorbing romance."

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  Cuba: A New History by Richard Gott

  Price: £9.99    Add to Basket

  An outstanding account of Cuban history ranging from the 16th century influx of conquistadores to the uncertain future heralded by Castro's looming demise. Gott is authoritative yet accessible, passionate yet balanced.

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  God's Middle Finger by Richard Grant

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  The lawless terrain of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Northern Mexico is home to drug dealers, opium farmers, Tarahumara Indians and Mormons, and once upon a time captured the heart of journalist Richard Grant. This is a refreshing, exciting and charming collection of Grant’s adventures, from the hilarious to the down-right deadly.

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  The Lawless Roads by Graham Greene

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  In the 1930s Graham Greene travelled across Mexico, a country devastated by a ten-year civil war, a campaign of enforced secularisation and a series of brutal anticlerical purges. His experiences would inspire his later novel The Power and the Glory.

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  Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  Guevara's diaristic account of the revolution is essential reading for anyone interested in Cuban history, as well as the man himself and his cause. Packed with anecdotal observation and pleasingly light on ideological asides, the intimate detail of the struggle is brought vividly to light.

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  Travels with a Circus by Katie Hickman

  Price: £6.99    Add to Basket

  An intriguing account of Katie Hickman's time spent with a Mexican circus, as she moves from fascinated observer to performer in her own right.

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  Beyond a Boundary by C L R James

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  Not only considered one of the best sports books ever written, C L R James' ode to the game of cricket is a thoughtful interplay of memoir, commentary on colonialism and exploration of West Indian culture.