Bad Girls

Born in the small Argentine town of Mina Clavero, Camila is designated male but begins to identify from an early age as a girl. She is well aware that she's different from other children and reacts to her oppressive, poverty-stricken home life, with a cowed mother and abusive, alcoholic father, by acting out - with swift consequences. Deeply intelligent, she eventually leaves for the city to attend university, slipping into prostitution to make ends meet. And in Sarmiento Park, in the heart of Cìrdoba, she discovers the strange, wonderful world of the trans sex workers who dwell there. Taken under the wing of Auntie Encarna, the 178-year-old eternal whose house shelters this unconventional extended family, Camila becomes a part of their stories - of a Headless Man who fled his country's wars, a mute young woman who transforms into a bird, an abandoned baby boy who brings a twinkle to your eye. Camila Sosa Villada's extraordinary first novel is a rich, nuanced portrait of a marginalized community: their romantic relationships, friendships and squabbles, difficulties at work, aspirations and disappointments. It bears witness to these lives constantly haunted by the specter of death - by disease or more violent means at the hands of customers, boyfriends, or the police - yet full of passion, empathy, and insight.


Genre: Literary Fiction

"Camila Sosa Villada's Bad Girls blew Argentina's collective mind with its exquisite power, tenderness, and riotous imagination." - Carolina De Robertis

"This is an important book: fun, tragic, political, and full of marvel. It makes you understand the lives of these women and the wonder and pain of being different and rejected. It's full of pride and exquisitely written. It will break your heart and at the same time make you want to laugh and dance, full of love and sorrow." - Mariana Enríquez

"A beautiful novel, moving, disturbing, raw, and honest. In skillfully rendered language, charged with poetic energy, it takes us deep into the world of trans prostitution and explores the violent and tender bonds that unite the women who inhabit it." - Fernanda Melchor

"Every so often, a slim book absolutely clobbers you with its exuberance and beauty--for me, this was that book." - Torrey Peters