Books from Argentina — The Book Roads

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

Bomarzo

Álvaro Enrigue, Manuel Mujica Láinez

Set in Renaissance Italy, Bomarzo tells the story of Pier Francesco Orsini, a physically deformed nobleman who becomes the Duke of Bomarzo. Intelligent, sensitive, and deeply conscious of his appearance, he grows up surrounded by cruelty, political intrigue, and family rivalries. Determined to overcome his vulnerabilities and secure his place in a world obsessed with power and beauty, he navigates the dangerous world of Renaissance aristocracy. Narrated from beyond the grave, his story blends historical events with fantasy, philosophical reflection, and dark humor. Through Orsini’s life and his creation of the extraordinary Garden of Monsters, Manuel Mujica Lainez explores mortality, ambition, identity, and humanity’s enduring desire to defy death.

1962