Cantoras: A novel

Scared to leave. Scared to stay. She hovered in the space between fears.

That’s how it was. How the world was. Even when loved, you were never fully seen.

“That the silence of dictatorship, the silence of the closet, as we call it now—all of that is layered and layered like blankets that muffle you until you cannot breathe. For many people it is too much. In Paraguay we have seen it. And so, here, none of you should carry the blame.”

It seemed, at times, that this was the only way the world would be remade as the heroes had dreamed: one woman holds another woman, and she in turn lifts the world.