The Queens Of Sarmiento Park

Auntie Encarna's house is the queerest boarding house in the world. For Camila, who grew up as a boy in a small town in Argentina, but now lives as a woman, it is home. The queens around her are her family: Auntie Encarna, who is 178 years old; Maria, who can't speak, and has feathers growing out of her back; and a host of other glittering characters. At night, they head together to Sarmiento Park, in the heart of the city, a large green lung with a zoo and a theme park. Potential johns cruise by in their cars, slowing down to inspect the group before selecting one with the wave of an arm. The chosen woman answers their call. Night after night, nothing changes. Until, one freezing night, Auntie Encarna hears crying coming from the bushes. A baby boy, lost and alone. Auntie Encarna puts him in her handbag and brings him home, determined to protect him. To be a mother. But the forces of oppression, prejudice and fear surround the family and their foundling - and soon the happiness they clutched at begins to seem like an impossible fairy tale ...

The Argentine literary sensation that has taken the Spanish-speaking world by storm: a dark, surreal and beautiful novel about violence, exclusion and love

''The most important book I''ve read on sexuality since Jean Genet'' Edouard Louis

''Ferocious and magical'' Torrey Peters, Guardian

''It will break your heart'' Mariana Enriquez

Auntie Encarna''s is the queerest boarding house in the world.

For Camila, it is a refuge, and the travesti who gather there are like family. At night they head out to Sarmiento Park to earn money. They stand together in the cold, sharing stories and a hip flask of whiskey, waiting for a car to slow down.

Until, one freezing evening, Auntie Encarna hears crying in the bushes and wades in to investigate. When she finds an abandoned baby boy, she will hear no arguments: she is bringing him home to care for him. Life for Camila and the others will never be the same again.

With a cast of larger-than-life, unforgettable characters, The Queens of Sarmiento Park combines brutal, unflinching realism with flourishes of surrealism to tell a story about the clash of hope with prejudice and fear. Wildly imaginative, darkly funny and devastatingly sad, it is a queer fairy tale about sex work, gender identity and chosen family; an anguished howl of pain and rage; and an unruly hymn to love and care on the outskirts of society.


''A beautiful novel, moving, disturbing, raw and honest'' Fernanda Melchor, author of Hurricane Season

''Fun, tragic, political and full of marvel ... It will break your heart and at the same time make you want to laugh and dance'' Mariana Enriquez