THE HAVANA ROOM

THE HAVANA ROOM demonstrates that Colin Harrison is a wonderful storyteller. In this novel, we meet Bill Wyeth, a Wall Street real estate lawyer whose life is turned upside down when some errant peanut sauce causes an allergic reaction that kills a young boy who is visiting his son. Down in the dumps, Wyeth happens upon THE HAVANA ROOM, a Manhattan steakhouse, where his life becomes anything but mundane. Henry Leyva captures Wyeth's emotions beautifully, particularly the despair he feels when, at one point, he finds himself virtually homeless. Leyva is especially effective with the various ethnic voices that populate the book. If The Havana Room has one failing, it's the abridgment's omission of many descriptive phrases, for which Harrison is well known. D.J.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 04]