Description

A sumptuous and surreal historical reimagining of one of South America’s best-known trans men, Antonio de Erauso

The new novel from the International Booker-shortlisted author of The Adventures of China Iron

‘Cabezon Camara’s historical fiction plays out like confession or revelation… glowing white hot, dancing like the heart of a pyre’ Financial Times

‘Profoundly resonant with our current moment… a story that is not only inclusive but also redemptive’ Chicago Review of Books

From deep in the wilds of the New World, Antonio de Erauso writes a letter to his aunt, the prioress of the convent he escaped as a young girl. Since leaving his past behind, he’s become Antonio, conquistador. Now, hiding in the jungle and hounded by the army he deserted, Antonio is caring for two Guarani girls he rescued from enslavement. But the New World has one more metamorphosis in store, which might save them all from extinction.

We Are Green and Trembling is a masterful subversion of Latin American history, religious tyranny and the mistreatment of women and indigenous people – finding in the rainforest a magical space where transformation is not only possible but necessary.

‘Gabriela Cabezon Camara’s writing is singular in the Spanish language: an intrepid pulse that shakes and disarms us’ FERNANDA MELCHOR

‘Not only does Camara challenge and incite us, she also gives us the subversive courage to think of ourselves as more human, more alive, and more luminous than ever’ SAMANTA SCHWEBLIN

‘Sensuous and searing-a queer anticolonial picaresque’ Publishers Weekly

Translated by Robin Myers

Publisher Review

Gabriela Cabezon Camara’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 — Fernanda Melchor So sharp, so urgent, so brave. Gabriela Cabezon Camara 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 — Samanta Schweblin “Cabezon Camara’s entrancing poetry reminds us how magical and frankly unpleasant it is to live through history * New York Times * This is the truth of Gabriela Cabezon Camara’s literature: it’s capable of questioning the very conception of the Western world through beauty. — Brenda Navarro