Operation Havana Libre may help readers understand the realistic presence of people who carry out national missions, such as National Intelligence Service officers and black operatives, as well as the operations they must conduct in secret. The NIS's vision is to work in the shadows while striving toward the light. But given the nature of spies and agents, their work tends to take place in the shadows rather than in the light. Perhaps Cuba, where the story's shadowy activities unfold, gives

This book has several meanings in its title. In the story, it is the name of Lee Seo-jun's operation in Cuba, and also the hotel where he stays briefly. The actual Spanish phrase is Habana Libre: Habana is the name of Cuba's largest city, and libre means free, so it can be translated as “Free Havana.” The author has said that he lived in Havana and drew heavily on that experience for the novel. There is a hotel with the same name in the Cuban city of Havana, and my search confirmed it is a

Havana is a place where it's not strange to do nothing. I had been wandering through the fear of the same life repeating every day. Reading about the secret agent Seo-jun, who doesn't force himself through exhausted resignation and has no particular hope, so he isn't afraid of tomorrow, I feel a kind of liberation like a spiderweb that survived a downpour. I ask, “How should I live?” and “Does life mean anything?” This book gives me the strange comfort of an answer: “Relax and just live. That's

Havana Libre — Jeong Min. *This book was provided by the publisher.* It's been a long time since I read a novel and spent the whole day eager to find out how it would end. Havana, Cuba's capital, is full of positive energy; you can hardly find a shadow there. Lee Seo-jun, a somewhat hapless intelligence agent (a black operative), goes there to carry out an operation. Given his circumstances, he plans a solo mission that will also give him a year of “rest.” Its grand objective is to target