07 Oct / The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre [in Booklist]
Argentine writer José Hernández’s 1872 epic poem, Martín Fierro, became both an historical and literary classic for preserving and celebrating the gaucho, equal parts horseman, rebel, and legend. In Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s latest, shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize, she transforms a few lines from the epic into “a highly provocative spin-off,” as described by agile translators Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre.
Born nameless and later called China Iron (“china,” loosely referring to gaucho women; “iron,” “the English for Fierro”), she was a “light-haired baby girl … obviously someone’s bastard child,” rare amidst indigenous Argentine populations. Raised by a Black woman who “treated [her] like her slave,” she was forfeited to brutish Fierro in a lost card game. By 14, she was a wife and mother to two sons.
When Fierro is conscripted into the military, China is suddenly freed. With her dog Estreya, she befriends Scottish settler Elizabeth; they pick up (justified) murderer-on-the-run Rosario and embark on “kaleidoscopic” adventures across late-19th-century Argentina. With history as backdrop, Cabezón Cámara confronts colonialism, racism, sexism, and classism – and even honors fluid identities to create an unexpected utopian reclamation.
Review: “Fiction,” Booklist, October 1, 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2017 (Argentina), 2020 (United States)