A Domestication

A hilarious, heartbreaking, and subversive novel about an actress who’s grown sick unto death of her own success story

“A single travesti is enough to undermine the foundations of a house, undo the knots of a commitment, break a promise, renounce a life,” reflects the unforgettable actress at the heart of Camila Sosa Villada’s provocative and page-turning new novel—a travesti, Sosa Villada’s chosen term for trans women like herself, a reclaimed slur that celebrates the boundary-crossing spirit. From hardscrabble rural beginnings, the actress has worked hard to acquire all the trappings of conventional success: an attorney husband who caters to her, a child, a thriving career as a diva of the stage. So why does she feel so stifled and unfulfilled? When the family embarks on a weekend visit to the actress’s hometown in the countryside, a ticking time bomb threatens to explode.

Sexy, funny, deeply moving, and unapologetic in its ambivalence, this novel reinvents the tragicomedy of domestic dysfunction for us all.