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A Novel
by Yuliana Ortiz Ruano
A young girl growing up in the Afro-descendant community of Ecuador in the 1990s confronts familial secrets, economic hardship, migration, and the specter of male violence set against the vibrant background of Carnaval.
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."
"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." —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 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
This information about Carnaval Fever was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Yuliana Ortiz Ruano (Esmeraldas, Ecuador, 1992) is a research professor at the University of the Arts of Ecuador, and 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 Award, the Primo Romanzo Latinoamericano Award, and the PEN Presents English PEN Award.
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