The Havana: A Novel

by Sam Shelstad

Morris’s life is a carefully balanced system of routines and he buys exactly one CD every Sunday, which he listens to while solving his weekly Sudoku digest. He watches every Atlanta Hawks game and reads up on NBA news during his morning muffin. He sneaks in and out of The Havana, the century-old three-story walk-up he’s shared with his girlfriend Maria for over a decade, in an attempt to avoid his obnoxious and prying neighbours. And now all of this is on the verge of collapse after Maria walks out on him.



A strange new roommate further threatens to upend his precarious world into chaos, after involving Morris in a botched crime. With the police and a mysterious limousine driver on his tail, Morris fights to bring Maria back to The Havana and return order to his delicately arranged existence. As he sorts through the wreckage, Morris begins to question whether his old life and relationship really are worth salvaging.

For fans of Dan Levy's Big Mistakes and My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, The Havana is a darkly funny comedy of errors about a hapless bank teller, his true-crime loving sister, and a pair of spectacularly unsuccessful criminals.

Paperback

Expected publication May 25, 2027