We Are Green and Trembling

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

'Cabezón Cámara’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 Guaraní 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 Cabezón Cámara’s writing is singular in the Spanish language: an intrepid pulse that shakes and disarms us’ FERNANDA MELCHOR

‘Not only does Cámara 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