Order from:
Finalist for the Kirkus Prize and a Lambda Literary Award
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
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 each other as lovers, friends, and ultimately, family.
In 1977 Uruguay, a military government has crushed political dissent with ruthless force. In an environment where citizens are kidnapped, raped, and tortured, homosexuality is a dangerous transgression. And yet Romina, Flaca, Anita “La Venus,” Paz, and Malena–five cantoras, women who “sing”–somehow, miraculously, find each other and then, together, discover an isolated, nearly uninhabited cape, Cabo Polonio, which they claim as their secret sanctuary. Over the next 35 years, their lives move back and forth between Cabo Polonio and Montevideo, the city they call home, as they return, sometimes together, sometimes in pairs, with lovers in tow, or alone. And throughout, again and again, the women will be tested–by their families, lovers, society, and each other–as they fight to live authentic lives.
A genre-defining novel and De Robertis’s masterpiece, Cantoras is a breathtaking portrait of queer love, community, forgotten history, and the strength of the human spirit. At once timeless and groundbreaking, Cantoras is a tale about the fire in all our souls and those who make it burn.
Praise & Reviews
“Brazenly hopeful…De Robertis’s precise, chilling insight into the daily agonies of life under a dictatorship rivals Ariel Dorfman’s…Cantoras is bold and unapologetic, a challenge to the notion of “normalcy” and a tribute to the power of love, friendship and political resistance. It’s a revolutionary fable, ideal for this moment, offered with wisdom and care.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Utterly breathtaking…Like her fierce characters, [De Robertis’] words pry and pull at the essence of not only what it feels like to be thwarted, condemned or quarantined because of your beliefs and identity, but also what it means to be a vulnerable yet empowered, infinitely beautiful and fully alive woman. Often, these sentences hit their target so directly and eloquently that they practically sing.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Masterful, passionate…each of De Robertis’ central characters is of incredible emotional depth…by the end of the novel, there is a sense that the reader has done more than simply peer in on the lives of strangers, that instead they have experienced something organic and deeply human—a dangerous, powerful kind of freedom.”
—BookPage
“Every line of this gorgeous and grippingly adventurous tale sings with lush, aqueous beauty.”
—O, the Oprah Magazine
“Searing…the author sensitively and singularly touches on themes of queerness, community, and perseverance.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Masterful…the year’s most exciting addition to the queer canon…an untold piece of LGBTQ world history, brought to light with a stirring message of hope and resilience.”
—The Advocate
“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 Reviews (starred review)
“Luminous…These women manage not only to survive but thrive under hostile conditions. De Robertis tells [the women’s] stories with heart and compassion.”
—Booklist
“A beautiful novel.”
—Alma
“Sensuous…De Robertis does a fine job of probing the harsh realities of what it takes to carve out a life of freedom under a progressive government.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Carolina’s writing, as always, blew me away. Cantoras is a stunning lullaby to revolution — and each woman in this novel sings it with 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-winning author of Another Brooklyn
“Tender, subversive, astonishing, so moving and thrilling. I’m so beguiled and stirred by this novel. It tells a story, about women in a grim time, that one feels couldn’t have been told until Carolina De Robertis came along. But it delivers the rich satisfactions of a 19th century political novel, as if Virginia Woolf had been inspired or infuriated by The Secret Agent, and let loose.”
— Francisco Goldman, author of Say Her Name
“A 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
“Cantoras is a wise, brilliantly compassionate, wide-ranging novel about women in Uruguay, and about the power and realities of love. Carolina De Robertis is a force: prepare to be astonished.”
— R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries
“A lyrical, richly sensory novel about a group of renegade cantoras—slang for queer women—who claim a beach refuge during the worst years of the dictatorship in Uruguay, and beyond. Together they steal time from oppression of all kinds, unspooling the infinity of themselves. Pointedly relevant to our own dangerous era, Carolina De Robertis has gifted us a majestic work of song and imagination, a handbook to survival for us all.”
— Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban and Here in Berlin
“I loved Cantoras. I rooted for these remarkable women during every step of their journey and found myself weeping in gratitude and happiness in the final pages.”
— Lisa See, author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
“A blessing to read Carolina De Robertis’ new novel, Cantoras. In this toxic era, her voice is what we need to bring us back to wholeness. Aside from that, it’s a damn good read! A gift.”
— Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer finalist, author of The House of Broken Angels