We Are Green and Trembling
Gabriela Cabezón Cámara author Robin Myers translator
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:12th Jun '25
Should be back in stock very soon

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
Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’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
A hallucinatory, innocent, fanciful and redemptive book. Cabezón Cámara’s historical fiction plays out like confession or revelation, a piece of real-unreal colonial apocrypha, glowing white hot, dancing like the heart of a pyre * Financial Times *
So sharp, so urgent, so brave. Gabriela Cabezón Cámara 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
Profoundly resonant with our current moment … Offers a searing critique of modernity’s colonial echoes: a resurgence of far-right ideology, cultural erasure, and gender-based oppression ... A story that is not only inclusive but also redemptive—anchored in the richness of language, the beauty of the natural world, and the power of storytelling to reclaim what history tries to erase * Chicago Review of Books *
"Cabezón Cámara’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 Cabezón Cámara's literature: it's capable of questioning the very conception of the Western world through beauty. -- Brenda Navarro
Myers translates Cámara’s lyrical prose to gorgeous effect, turning even the most brutal of Antonio’s adventures into a beautiful reading experience... transformative writing—for character and reader alike * The Rumpus *
Polyphonic... A seamless, fever-dreamy exposé of inhumane colonialism, religiosity, and genocide * Booklist *
Sensuous and searing—a queer anticolonial picaresque * Publishers Weekly *
At the same time futuristic and ancestral. Its luminous prose pulses several times to moments of absolute radiance * World Literature Today *
ISBN: 9781787304765
Dimensions: 223mm x 142mm x 21mm
Weight: 319g
208 pages