The Cruel and Astonishing Tale of Imogen Cabral Da Gama

This is a novel that takes place primarily in 1947 – 1948—the immediate postwar period—in a fictional British Caribbean island named St. Francis. St. Francis, while a distinct fictional space, is strongly based off the island I grew up in, the Commonwealth of Dominica, in the days after the War when many British Caribbean islands still had American bases and were embroiled in battles to end their rule by the British. The novel follows four primary characters: a teenage trans girl named Imogen, who doesn't even know the word "transgender" might exist and who most of the world knows as "Derek"; her grandmother, Isabel Catarina da Gama, who for many years has lived alone with Imogen in the da Gama family mansion; Beija-flor, a Brazilian teenage girl from Sao Paulo who has come with her father to St. Francis, as her father is involved in a mysterious job in the island, and who has been promised to be married to a man back in Brazil she does not love; and Monsignor Bakkus, a highly influential religious figure in the island who has a secret history with Isabel Catarina that torments him. In the beginning of the novel, the da Gamas' house burns down when Imogen steps outside to investigate two things she isn't accustomed to: the sound of someone singing and the smell of guavas. When she returns, the house is on fire, and her grandmother, furious, tells her Imogen must pay her back for what she has done, as well as to rebuild the house. In order to generate money, the grandmother forces Imogen to put on a disturbing, dangerous show that attracts people from across the island, including American soldiers from the nearby WWII base and the local pastor, who condemns the show and calls the monsignor to the village to investigate. Imogen meets Beija-flor through the show, and the two form a fast friendship. But when Imogen begins to stray beyond her grandmother's control to spend more time with Beija-flor and to try to figure out her own identity, they begin to learn things about themselves and the world that they can never unlearn. When the monsignor arrives in the village with an agenda to not only stop the show and deal with the American soldiers' brothel but to confront his past with Isabel Catarina, chaos ensues, and everyone learns that they must make decisions that will terrify them—and change them forever. This is a novel about love, loss, gender, religion, imperialism, and much more.

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