In the 1990s, a woman makes a living as a rental girlfriend for gay men. In a Harlem den, a travesti gets to know none other than Billie Holiday. A group of rugby players haggle over the price of a night of sex, and in return they get what they deserve. Nuns, grandmothers, children, and dogs are never what they seem… These 9 stories are inhabited by extravagant and profoundly human characters who face an ominous reality in ways as strange as themselves. I’m a Fool to Want You confirms that Camila Sosa Villada is one of the most powerful and original voices in contemporary literature. With her daring imagination, she can speak the language of a victim of the Mexican Inquisition, or create a dystopian universe where travestis take their revenge. With her unique style, Sosa Villada blends everyday life and magic, honouring the oral tradition with unparalleled fluency.
Camila Sosa Villada was born in 1982 in La Falda (Córdoba, Argentina). She is a writer, actress, and singer, and previously earned a living as a sex worker, street vendor, and hourly maid. She holds degrees in communication and theater from the National University of Córdoba. Her play Carnes tolendas, retrato escénico de un travesti was selected for the 2010 National Theater Festival held in La Plata. Her first novel, Bad Girls, won the Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and the Grand Prix de l’Héroïne Madame Figaro and has been translated into more than twenty languages.
Kit Maude is a translator based in Buenos Aires. He has translated dozens of classic and contemporary Latin American writers such as Armonía Somers, Jorge Luis Borges, Lolita Copacabana, and Ariel Magnus for a wide array of publications, and writes reviews and criticism for several different outlets in Spanish and English including the Times Literary Supplement, Revista Ñ, and Otra Parte.
Review: I’m a Fool to Want You, Kirkus Reviews
Read: Afternoon Tea, Other Press
Prompt: Write about a couple in the storm. Aim for 3 paragraphs. Allow the external environment to convey their inner turmoil without them mentioning it.