Cantoras

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You wrote Cantoras in English and then translated your own text into Spanish. How did you find the act of translating your own novel? I have also read, and really enjoyed your English translation of Laura Restrepo’s novel The Divine Boys, was anything easier or harder translating your own work compared to translating somebody else’s? Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives. Rich and luscious, De Robertis’ writing feels like a living thing, lapping over the reader like the ocean. Carefully crafted and expertly observed, each sentence is an elegant gift . . . A stunning novel about queer love, womanhood, and personal and political revolution.”— Kirkus(starred)

The first chapter, aptly titled “Escape,” introduces us to the five women, each incredibly distinct, who have taken up residence in my heart and will never leave. Carolina’s writing, as always, blew me away. Cantoras is a stunning lullaby to revolution—and each woman in this novel sings it with a deep ferocity. Again and again, I was lifted, then gently set down again—either through tears, rage, or laughter. Days later, I am still inside this song of a story.”— Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award winner and author of Red at the BoneThese five women who call themselves cantoras, some, but not all, married. Some very young, and others older, having spent years suppressing their nature. If their behavior, their actions, come under scrutiny, there will be repercussions. Some worry over how their actions will affect their mothers. Regardless, as someone who doesn't read a lot of historical fiction, especially adult historical fiction, this was truly a wonderful read that I'm already looking forward to re-reading, and I can't wait to read more by De Robertis in the future! Tl;dr (aka my reading experience summed up in Spongebob gifs (because sometimes this guy expresses emotions better than I do)):

Asombrosa… Cantoras es una joya de novela que brilla en todas las facetas creativas…si este libro fuera una ópera, De Robertis ensordecería por el aplauso cada vez que se cerrara el telón. [ Cantoras] es, por decir lo menos, una memorable historia que es una llamada de atención a la esperanza”.—Janet Levine, New York Journal of BooksA powerful paean to freedom. Cantoras is a work of great beauty—it pulses and glows and gathers its words like poetry. Most of all, it leaves the reader longing for a world in which to be oneself is no risk and requires no special courage.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of the Booker finalist We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Of the five women, Flaca is the one to bring them together initially. She’s a butcher’s daughter, used to fairly physical work and not very feminine. She’s quite aware of her sexual orientation but given the era, the patriarchal society and the terror instilled by the recent ascendance of a military dictatorship, being queer is hidden. Romina, in her early 20s like Flaca, is a student and former lover, now best friend, of Flaca’s. Her brother has been detained and jailed for suspected dissidence which means she is marked by association and being discovered a lesbian is as dangerous as being a part of the resistance is. They’d been forming a kind of family, woven from cast-offs, like a quilt made from strips of leftover fabric no one wanted. They wanted each other. They had to stay woven. They could not fray." From the highly acclaimed, award-winning author of The Gods of Tango, a revolutionary new novel about five wildly different women who, in the midst of the Uruguayan dictatorship, find one another as lovers, friends, and ultimately, family. Those particular military dictatorships may have come to a close, but they never went away. Uruguay (2019) just elected its first right wing, racist, oligarch president since Mujica; one who has a history of abusing workers on his estancias. The Trump Bolsonaro Duque Pinera brand of leadership has a very armed following in South America, and the bloody, brutal military coup d'état (golpe de estado) of Bolivia has blown by basically unnoticed, despite the BS claims about a “dirty election” being proven false:

As they come to know one another, they make plans for a weeklong trip away from the peering eyes and potential for gossip close to home, and head to Cabo Polonio, a remote village along the coast where, it is rumoured, where they feel they will be safe from prying eyes, somewhere they can still feel alive.They’d been forming a kind of family, woven from castoffs, like a quilt made from strops of leftover fabric no one wanted. They wanted each other. They had to stay woven. They would not fray. The dictatorship in Uruguay is referred to euphemistically as ‘El Proceso’ in Cantoras, and we can see that the characters express some of their emotions towards the regime using this term. I’m curious to know, is the term ‘El Proceso’ still used to refer to the dictatorship today? Does it have the same connotations that it used to have?

Every line of this gorgeous and grippingly adventurous tale sings with lush,aqueous beauty.”— O, The Oprah Magazine

A lyrical, richly sensory novel. . . . Pointedly relevant to our own dangerous age, Carolina De Robertis has gifted us a majestic work of song and imagination, a handbook to survival for us all.”—Cristina García, author of Here in Berlin And, well, of course people wanted it over. But as oppressed and abused groups have been screaming, unheard, forever: “No Justice No Peace!” and not all of our 5 woman Family adjusted to the new politics, the new struggle, and her place in it, with a happily-ever-after. The older (and crankier) i grow, the more i value Vonnegut’s concept of the granfalloon, as representing most families - the artifice of commonality. Or, officially: a group of people who affect a shared identity or purpose, but whose mutual association is meaningless.