Novás Calvo, Lino (1905–1983)

Lino Novás Calvo (b. 22 September 1905; d. 24 March 1983), Cuban short story writer, novelist, translator, and essayist. Born in Spain, Novás Calvo immigrated to Cuba as a young boy and lived there until 1980, when he moved to the United States. His works often reflect the plight of people trapped by events beyond their control. In spite of their usual regional setting, his works ascend always to a universal level because of his themes of the basic loneliness of the individual and the uncertainties of human life. His narratives, while usually written in the first person and characterized by colloquial language, nonetheless avoid narrow regionalism. His best known novel is El negrero (1933; The Slave Trader). However, it is his short stories, collected mainly in La luna nona y otros cuentos (1942; The Ninth Moon and Other Stories), Cayo Canas (1946; Palm Key), and Maneras de contar (1970; Narrative Manners), that place him among the great writers of Latin America. They are characterized by magical realism, a deceptively simple narrative style, varied perspective, and unexpected developments and imagery.

See alsoLiterature: Spanish America .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Seymour Menton, Prose Fiction of the Cuban Revolution (1975), pp. 235-239.

Raymond D. Souza, Lino Novás Calvo (1981).

Lorraine E. Roses, Voices of the Storyteller: Cuba's Lino Novás Calvo (1986).

Raymond D. Souza, "Lino Novás Calvo," in Dictionary of Twentieth Century Cuban Literature, edited by Julio A. Martínez (1990), pp. 318-323.

Additional Bibliography

Febles, Jorge M. "La ineludible voz tácita del otro en 'El negrero': Vida novelada de Pedro Blanco Fernández de Trava." Hispania 84:4 (December 2001): 758-766.

Habra, Hedy. "El negrero como personaje romántico en 'Pedro Blanco, el negrero' de Lino Novás Calvo." Afro-Hispanic Review 18:1 (Spring 1999): 46-52.

                                       Otto Olivera