With a touch of humor, award-winning author Gioconda Belli creates an ideal world for women, imagining a future that we still only find in fiction.
Years of male incompetence and oppression continued unabated in Fáguas, a small, fictional Latin American country, until the Mitre volcano erupted—right during the presidential elections. After three days of inhaling the smoke exhaled by the imposing watchman, the men became drowsy and their testosterone levels dropped dramatically, blessing Fáguas with unprecedented stillness. Interestingly, at the same time, the unpopular candidate Viviana Sansón, of the Erotic Left Party, won the election.
However, in her second year in office, Viviana Sansón falls into a coma after an assassination attempt. A wave of uncertainty grips the people, and everyone wonders who shot the president. Could this person have acted alone? When will Sansón wake up? If he ever does. Who will govern in the president's absence, given that the country lacks a vice president? Will this crisis bring regression?
In this feminist utopia, which received the La Otra Orilla Prize, Nicaraguan writer and activist Gioconda Belli, winner of the Casa de Las Américas Prize, satirically exposes the differences between men and women in power. In a time of political extremism and distrust in democracy, Gioconda Belli provokes the understanding that overcoming social problems requires urgent change.
"Feminism and progressive politics remain central themes in Gioconda Belli's work. She is, without a doubt, an inventor of narratives." — Los Angeles Times
"Gioconda Belli is one of Nicaragua's most important political and intellectual voices. She is considered by her fellow countrymen to be one of the most free-spirited and critically engaged intellectuals in the fight for democracy." — Bomb Magazine
“A novel filled with real characters, corrupt politicians, depraved judges, rapists and abusers, but which is also about everyday life and the exuberant, telluric nature of Fáguas.” — Confidential
“In this work, the story of the fictional Latin American country Fáguas, governed by members of the Erotic Left Party (PEE), is told by its president, Viviana Sansón – victim of an assassination attempt – in a critical and humorous narrative about what a country run entirely by women could be like.” – Brasil de Fato
