Puro humo

According to Guillermo Cabrera Infante, «Puro humo is several books at the same time: a history of tobacco that begins with its discovery in 1492 by Rodrigo de Jerez, a sailor from the nao capitana [...], a celebration of tobacco and smoking that strange leaf, and a rhapsody in which the cigarette and the pipe intervene. But it is more than anything a scholarly chronicle of the relationship between the cigar and the cinema. It should be added that it is one of the best examples of the versatility of Cabrera Infante, who originally published the book in 1985 in English after spending half his life in London, where he used that language as a screenwriter, columnist and literary critic. Postponed for a while, the Spanish version ended up being, not a regular translation, but a full-blown rewriting that preserves the inventiveness and freshness of the original.