We Are Green And Trembling

By (author) Cámara, Gabriela Cabezón; Translated by Myers, Robin
Short description/annotation:
Lyrical and swashbuckling, tender and surreal, Gabriela Cabezón Camara’s new novel finds glimmers of hope for the future in the brutal history of colonial Latin America
Description:
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE Deep in the wilds of the New World, Antonio de Erauso begins to write a letter to his aunt, the prioress of the Basque convent he escaped as a young girl. Since fleeing a dead-end life as a nun, he''s become Antonio and undertaken monumental adventures: he has been a mule driver, shopkeeper, soldier, cabin boy, and conquistador; he has wielded his sword and slashed with his dagger. Now, caring for two Guaraní girls he rescued from enslavement, and hounded by the army he deserted, this protean protagonist contemplates one more metamorphosis, which just might save the new world from extinction… Based on the life of Antonio de Erauso, a real figure of the Spanish conquest, We Are Green and Trembling is a queer baroque satire and a historical novel that blends elements of the picaresque with surreal storytelling. Its rich and wildly imaginative language forms a searing criticism of conquest and colonialism, religious tyranny, and the treatment of women and indigenous people. It is a masterful subversion of Latin American history with a trans character at its center, finding in the rainforest a magical, surreal space where transformation is not only possible but necessary.
Review quote:
"A hallucinatory, innocent, fanciful and redemptive book. Cabezón Cámara’s historical fiction plays out like confession or revelation, a piece of real-unreal colonial apocrypha, glowing white hot, dancing like the heart of a pyre."
Review quote:
"Haunting, powerful new historical fiction."
Review quote:
"Sensuous and searing—a queer anticolonial picaresque."
Review quote:
"A bold and compassionate reimagining of an extraordinary queer life."
Review quote:
"Cabezón Cámara’s third novel published in English, fluidly translated by Myers, is a polyphonic interpretation of the incomparable adventures of an enigmatic, seventeenth-century conquistador-esque figure whose chosen moniker was Antonio de Erauso—a seamless, fever-dreamy exposé of inhumane colonialism, religiosity, and genocide, revealing the extreme resilience necessary to claim selfhood outside expected, mandated norms."
Review quote:
"Argentine writer and founder of the feminist movement Ni una menos Gabriela Cabezón Cámara turns Argentine history on its head with a trans main character and transformation at its core—this remarkable novel is powerful, sensual and imaginative. "
Review quote:
"Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s writing is singular in the Spanish language: an intrepid pulse that shakes and disarms us in the face of the wordless power, both formidable and innocent, of the jungle and the creatures it portrays."
Review quote:
"She writes with the astuteness of an experienced researcher and the vivid rhythms of a poet. The worlds of her books are revealed to us through a playful, erotic, festive sense of curiosity, one that always leads us to good harbor."
Review quote:
"If there''s any writer strong enough to start a revolution, it''s Gabriela Cabezón Cámara. And I''ll be right there beside her."
Review quote:
"So sharp, so urgent, so brave. Gabriela Cabezón Cámara is one of the most authentic voices writing in Spanish today, and among her many talents is one that''s especially hard to find: not only does she challenge and incite us, not only does she confront the darkness, but she also gives us in return the subversive courage to think of ourselves as more human, more alive, and more luminous than ever."
Review quote:
"Cabezón Cámara’s ent