Carnaval Fever - by Yuliana Ortiz Ruano (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Ainhoa lives a protected life within the walls of her grandmother's house in the neighborhood of Limones. Surrounded by a gaggle of aunts who love, correct, and teach her, Ainhoa narrates moments that evoke the powerful presence of music and dance in her daily life, while also touching on historical and current themes: the dollarisation of the Ecuadorian economy and the huge wave of emigration that it provoked, dividing families; environmental racism and the health effects on the Afro-Ecuadorian population of activities such as petroleum refining and African palm and banana growing; drug trafficking; AIDS; and gender-based violence. Never didactic, this singular novel brims with poetry and exuberance, as well as the pain of forgotten corners. Seen through Ainhoa's innocent eyes, these difficult topics are simply one side of the coin, of the culture she lives in-the other being the joy, language, music, dance, and vibrancy through which her community regularly "dances it out.""-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A young girl growing up in an Afro-descendant community of Ecuador in the 1990s confronts familial secrets and the ever-present specter of male violence, set against the vibrant background of Carnaval

"In this wondrous novel, both life's potential for beauty and harshness sing together. Ortiz has written a story you will not forget." --Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain Gang All-Stars

Ainhoa lives a protected life within the walls of her grandmother's house in the neighborhood of Esmeraldas in Ecuador. Surrounded by a gaggle of aunts who love and teach her, Ainhoa narrates moments that evoke the powerful presence of music and dance in her daily life while also confronting familial violence over the course of Carnaval season. Seen through Ainhoa's innocent eyes, the difficult themes that have defined the South American country's recent history, including economic hardship, migration, and upheaval, are but one side of an enormous cultural richness steeped in the joy, music, and vibrancy of this singular community of women.

Following the contours of Carnaval, and sublimely translated by Madeleine Arenivar, Yuliana Ortiz Ruano's sensorial and viscerally alive novel brims with poetry and exuberance, as well as the pain of an existence lived in the forgotten corners of the world. Carnaval Fever is the introduction of an important new voice in Latin American letters, available in English for the first time.

Review Quotes

Electric Literature, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year

"Evocative and captivating." --Karla J. Strand, Ms.

"Written with unsparing sensual velocity, the novel Carnaval Fever is about family and cultural complexities and an exuberant, troubled girlhood . . . leading into the book's somber, integral conclusion." --Meg Nola, Foreword Reviews

"Carnaval Fever by Yuliana Ortiz Ruano is a celebration of Afro-Ecuadorian identity and female resilience . . . Through it all, it is the power of sisterhood that will ensure the continued existence of the community, as it goes through heartbreaks, migration, and violence." --Linnea Gradin, Electric Literature

"In this wondrous novel, both life's potential for beauty and harshness sing together. Ortiz has written a story you will not forget." --Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain Gang All-Stars

"I totally fell in love with Ainhoa's voice, her freshness, her irrepressible curiosity, her refusal to be tamed." --Julia Alvarez

"I read Carnaval Fever in one sitting. Yuliana Ortiz Ruano captures the way young Afro-Ecuadorian women build community by holding on to each other, and find ways to protect one another against a cruel world. Poetic, brutally honest, and deeply introspective, Ainhoa's story hooks into your heart and haunts you long after the last page is turned." --Zoraida Córdova, award-winning author of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina

About the Author

YULIANA ORTIZ RUANO (Esmeraldas, Ecuador, 1992) is an Afro music DJ. A novelist and a poet, she is the author of the collections Sovoz, Canciones desde el fin del mundo, and Cuaderno del imposible retorno a Pangea. Carnaval Fever won the Joaquín Gallegos Lara National Fiction Prize, the Primo Romanzo Latinoamericano Award, and the PEN Presents English PEN Award.