Variations on the Body - by María Ospina (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

A constellation of short stories illustrates the complex, interrelated lives of women in and around Bogotá, Colombia.

In six subtly connected vignettes, Variations on the Body explores the obsessions, desires, and idiosyncrasies of women and girls from every level of Colombian society. A former FARC guerilla fighter adjusts to urban life and faces the new violence of an editor co-opting her experiences. A woman documents a flea infestation with a catalog of the marks on her body. A child copes with anxiety about the adult world by concocting--and drinking--"dirt juice" every day in the garden. Combining humor, heartbreak, and unsettling violence, Ospina weaves a multifaceted picture of contemporary Bogotá in vibrant, gleaming prose.

Review Quotes

The Rumpus, "What to Read When You Want to Celebrate Women''s History"

Book Riot, "Must-Read Books in Translation"

"María Ospina has created an artifact that's both luminous and dark, tender and cruel, whose inhabitants move in a shared space sculpted by violence--the narcoguerrilla and its tentacles. Within these pages, there shines a fine and beautiful diamond of sharp, fearsome faces." --Carmen Boullosa

"Ospina is a remarkable talent, and Heather Cleary, an extraordinary translator. I love the offbeat, flea-bitten reality Variations on the Body captures: Marxist guerillas, stray dogs, dolls, vivid dreams. It's as if Ospina has cut beautiful, odd scraps from our world using her own unique writer-made scissors." --Camilla Grudova

About the Author

Heather Cleary's translations include Betina González's American Delirium, Roque Larraquy's Comemadre (nominee, National Book Award for Translated Literature 2018), and Sergio Chejfec's The Planets (finalist, Best Translated Book Award 2013) and The Dark (nominee, National Translation Award 2014). A member of the Cedilla & Co. translation collective and a founding editor of the digital, bilingual Buenos Aires Review, she teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.