CANTORAS by Carolina De Robertis - BookPage Starred Review

BOOKPAGE | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

“Cantoras is at its most powerful when dissecting consequences of desire. Several of the central characters are subjected to horrific violence at the hands of the military dictatorship, but they are also sometimes subjected to violence at the hands of their relatives, people who cannot accept them as they are, who want desperately to ‘fix’ them. In this atmosphere of repression, Romina, one of the five women, thinks, ‘the path into the forbidden was in fact wide open right in front of you...stepping onto it could be a kind of rightness, a vitality more powerful than fear.’

The bond the five women form—the way they orbit, attract and repel, take solace and find strength in one another—is the most moving part of Cantoras. 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.”

Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis received a starred review on BookPage! Follow the link above to read the full review.

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