In 1977, Uruguay was in the midst of political and economic turmoil and a military regime took over and they squashed all political protests without showing any mercy toward the defenceless civilians.

Another summer buddy read with my dear friend, Beth, and I don’t think we could have loved this more! And throughout, again and again, the women will be tested–by their families, lovers, society, and each other–as they fight to live authentic lives. How does each woman’s relationship with her parents affect the ways in which she understands and interacts with both the dictatorship and her own identities?The essence of dictatorship is that no matter where you are or how ordinary you seem, you’re in a cage. I’m sure she did some kind of voice coaching because all the five characters’ voices are distinctive and her performance of the ample range of emotions is as good as any narrator’s. Several times while reading, I found myself wanting to go back and highlight and annotate everything it was that gorgeous. At times the complicated multi-character plot feels fragmented, like several broken pieces piled on top of one another, but this fragmentation eventually resolves into a whole, resulting in a sensation like waves moving over one another.

And throughout, again and again, the women will be tested by their families, lovers, society, and one another as they fight to live authentic lives. Each character is unique, they all have individual connections with the other characters, and the time spans 1970s to 2013. But this is the 1970’s in Uruguay and South America during the rule of heinous military dictatorships when ordinary people living ordinary lives were disappeared and tortured in prisons simply for the crime of existing. It is beautifully written about five women living in Uruguay, building a found family to live as who they really are, despite dictators, trauma, and fear. Autorka pisze, że queerowa miłość pozwala usłyszeć “odgłosy rozdzieranego świata, otwierającego się na inne, szersze przestrzenie, do tej pory nieosiągalne”.Rich and luscious, De Robertis' writing feels like a living thing, lapping over the reader like the ocean. Now here [Romina] was again, suspended in her own desire as if desire didn’t live inside you at all but instead it was you who lived inside your desire, as if a woman’s wanting could be oceanic, vast enough to be swum, to be submerged in. Over the course of many years (teens to older adults), they see things change not only in Uruguay but on the beach they claimed as their own in early adulthood. There has never been another book that hit me so hard, that I cried and sobbed because I personally felt connect to all of the characters, not just the five cantoras but all of them. Uncorrected proof) That in essence is this story, women triumphing beyond unimaginable pain and scars.

In defiance of the brutal military government that took power in Uruguay in the 1970s, and under which homosexuality is a dangerous transgression, five women miraculously find one another—and, together, an isolated cape that they claim as their own.

Sensuous…De Robertis does a fine job of probing the harsh realities of what it takes to carve out a life of freedom under a progressive government. The women are alive on the pages of this novel, even Malena, who shimmers just out of reach in her aloofness. A warning though for those who find explicit same sex scenes uncomfortable, though I thought they were well done and helped define the story. Prawo oficjalnie nie ściga osób homoseksualnych, ale kto by się tu przejmował prawem, gdy do więzienia można trafić za zorganizowanie domówki?