We Are Green and Trembling

From deep in the wilds of the New World, Antonio writes a letter to his aunt, the prioress of the same Basque convent he escaped as a young girl. Since transforming into Antonio, he has had monumental adventures and taken on numerous guises. He has been a mule driver, shopkeeper, soldier, cabin boy and conquistador. He has wielded his sword and slashed with his dagger.

Now, hiding in the jungle and hounded by the army he deserted, Antonio is looking after two Guaraní girls he rescued from enslavement. But the New World has one more metamorphosis in store, which might save them all from extinction.

Based on the life of Antonio de Erauso, a real figure from the Spanish conquest, We Are Green and Trembling is a masterful criticism of religious tyranny and the mistreatment of women and indigenous people.

This queer, baroque, tender and surreal novel conveys glimmers of hope for the future within the brutal colonial history of Latin America – finding in the rainforest a magical space where transformation is not only possible but necessary.

Translated by Robin Myers