Get Out Tonight: Akashic All-Star Tour @ Elliott Bay

Akashic Books is one of the publishers that keeps us excited--they take chances on authors and bring great literature to market in an environment that seldom rewards that sort of foresight. And tonight, another Akashic All-Star tour of some of their finest authors returns to Elliott Bay Books. Achy Obejas is one of the top Cuban writers today, and in her new novel Ruins, she tracks the trials and tribulations of a scheming survivor (or better, "endurer") of the ups and downs of post-revolutionary Cuba, where Obejas continues to spend substantial amounts of time.

Robert Arellano, in contrast, is the child of Cuban emigres, and draws from decades of Cuban noir fiction in his dystopian novel Havana Lunar. Following the unlikely pairing of a young prostitute and an EMT, Arellano draws a caustic portrait of a collapsing Socialist dictatorship and the corrupt underworld that's arisen surrounding the tourism industry.

Alice Fantastic by Maggie Estep moves away from the Cuban orbit but stays firmly in the noir tradition, with a feminine twist. Alice Hunter, a professional gambler, is having trouble with her beau, and when a trick to keep him at bay backfires, she turns to her sister Eloise and mother Kimberly, only to find that they have skeletons in the proverbial closet too.

Akashic All-Star Tour // Elliott Bay Book Co., 101 S. Main St. // 7:30 p.m., free!