Tentacle
Published on 15. November 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-911508-34-2 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the 2017 Grand Prize of the Association of Caribbean Writers
Longlisted for the 2020 Best Translated Book Award
Plucked from her life on the streets of post-apocalyptic Santo Domingo, young maid Acilde Figueroa finds herself at the heart of a Santeria prophecy: only she can travel back in time and save the ocean - and humanity - from disaster. But first she must become the man she always was - with the help of a sacred anemone. Tentacle is an electric novel with a big appetite and a brave vision, plunging headfirst into questions of climate change, technology, Yoruba ritual, queer politics, poverty, sex, colonialism and contemporary art. Bursting with punk energy and lyricism, it's a restless, addictive trip: The Tempest meets the telenovela.
Longlisted for the 2020 Best Translated Book Award
Plucked from her life on the streets of post-apocalyptic Santo Domingo, young maid Acilde Figueroa finds herself at the heart of a Santeria prophecy: only she can travel back in time and save the ocean - and humanity - from disaster. But first she must become the man she always was - with the help of a sacred anemone. Tentacle is an electric novel with a big appetite and a brave vision, plunging headfirst into questions of climate change, technology, Yoruba ritual, queer politics, poverty, sex, colonialism and contemporary art. Bursting with punk energy and lyricism, it's a restless, addictive trip: The Tempest meets the telenovela.
Reviews / Votes
'Tentacle is as strange and beautiful a sea-change as its epigraph from The Tempest suggests ... Achy Obejas brings the volume to English language readers with a social burja-cyborg flare - at once witchy, almost shamanisitically intuitive about the nature of language, and yet precise.' Alexandra Marraccini, Times Literary Supplement'Where to begin? Rita Indiana's Tentacle has the settings, themes, and expansiveness of a much larger book, but it blends that ambition with a host of irreverence (along with some nods to the music of Giorgio Moroder, which is never a bad thing). It's a time-travel story, a meditation on gender and sexuality, and an art-world satire-as well as, arguably, a satire of 'chosen one' narrative tropes. To say that this is unlike anything else you'll read this year is probably stating the obvious.' Words Without Borders January Watchlist by Tobias Carroll
'Alcide is a queer world unto himself. He travels through the history of the Dominican Republic, revealing its queer foundations while challenging the notion that time and space are static, unchanging categories.' Alexandra Gonzenbach Perkins, Wasafiri
'From beginning to end, Tentacle is a strange, unnerving, and at times beautiful book that critiques global inequality and the politicization of climate change.' Amy Brady, Chicago Review of Books
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
High Wycombe
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
138 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-911508-34-2 (9781911508342)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Born and raised in the Dominican Republic and now living in Puerto Rico, Rita Indiana is a driving force in contemporary Caribbean literature and music. She is the author of three collections of stories and five novels. Three of her novels have been translated into English. Papi made World Literature Today's 2016 list of 75 Notable Translations. Tentacle, published by And Other Stories, won the Grand Prize of the Association of Caribbean Writers, the first book written in Spanish to do so. Achy Obejas is a writer, journalist and translator. She is the author of the novels Ruins and Days of Awe, as well as three other books of fiction. She edited and translated (into English) the anthology Havana Noir. She currently serves as the Director of the MFA in Translation program at Mills College in Oakland, California. She is from Cuba and lives in California.