A Domestication

A boundary-shattering actress finds herself sick to 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 slyly subversive new novel—travesti being Sosa Villada’s chosen term for trans women like herself, a reclaimed slur that celebrates the transgressive spirit. From tough rural beginnings, the actress has made no compromises in pursuit of her art, yet somehow she’s arrived at a time of triumph, not only in her thriving stage career but with all the other trappings of success: a beautiful home, an adoring husband, an adored child. So why does she feel so stifled and unfulfilled? When a family road trip to her hometown takes some unsettling detours into the past, an oppressive equilibrium threatens to implode.

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