Books from Argentina — The Book Roads

Claudia Piñeiro

The Time of the Flies follows Inés, a woman rebuilding her life after spending fifteen years in prison for murdering her former husband’s lover. Released into a society that has changed considerably during her imprisonment, Inés struggles to understand the new social landscape, including shifting attitudes toward gender, sexuality, and women’s rights. She establishes a small fumigation business with another formerly imprisoned woman, hoping to achieve independence and leave her troubled past behind. However, an unexpected request draws her into a new mystery that threatens the fragile stability she has created. Blending crime fiction, dark humour, and social commentary, Piñeiro explores punishment, reintegration, and the difficulties women face when attempting to begin again. The novel asks whether freedom is simply the absence of prison walls or the more complicated ability to shape one’s own future.

2022

We are Green and Trembling

Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

We Are Green and Trembling reimagines the story of Antonio de Erauso, a seventeenth-century Spanish figure who escaped a convent, adopted a male identity, and travelled through colonial South America. Narrated by Antonio’s companion, the Indigenous woman Micuén, the novel follows their adventures across a world shaped by colonial violence, religious authority, and rigid gender expectations. Blending historical fiction, satire, and exuberant storytelling, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara challenges conventional ideas about gender, identity, and power while exposing the brutality of colonialism. Through its unconventional characters and vivid prose, the novel celebrates resistance, transformation, and the possibility of creating a life beyond the identities imposed by society.

2025