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La Bastarda
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
17 posts | 12 read | 16 to read
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review
Kitta
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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Pickpick

Soft pick.

#LGBTQBookBingo and Cottage Read #5

The first book by a woman from Equatorial Guinea translated into English and it‘s a queer book!

Was a little stilted and hard to connect at times, though the struggle to be accepted is worldwide. I wish we got more of her life after the book ended.

The afterword was great and am important read about the use of corrective rape when lesbian women are outed. Lots of trigger warnings for this one

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ManyWordsLater
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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Waiting in the car. Starting this one.

bnp Ooh, hope to hear what you think. This is on my list of potential reads for a couple of challenges in 2023. 2y
ManyWordsLater @bnp It was really good. Short easy to read and understand the perspective of the author. 2y
54 likes2 comments
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galueth28
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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Pickpick

I dropped the ball with #ReadingAfrica2022, but I enjoyed this short novel from Equatorial Guinea. Okomo is an young woman, navigating life as the daughter of an unmarried woman, dealing with family drama and falling in love with another girl.

9 likes1 stack add
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galueth28
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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Seems all I post lately is pics of me reading outside 😋

12 likes2 stack adds
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Dilara
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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There aren't many Equatorial Guinea novels and beggars can't be choosers, but still... I wished the translation flowed better, and the writing was less didactic. It's probably going to be a soft pick nonetheless.

#EquatorialGuinea #Africa #LGBTQI+

Picture of the writer from Wikipedia

BarbaraBB I just read this one too. And you‘re right about the translation. At least I think it is the translation. I lacks dept at times. 3y
Dilara @BarbaraBB Yes, that was disappointing. I'm not happy with the translation, and I found the translator's choice to keep some words in Spanish (abuelita, hija...) puzzling, since the novel is conveying the thoughts and speech of characters who don't communicate in Spanish in the first place, but in Fang.

Note to self: try Ekomo, au cœur de la forêt guinéenne (Spanish 1985, French 1995) by María Nsué Angüe
3y
BarbaraBB I was wondering about the Spanish too but didn‘t know if maybe they were colonized by Spain once. 3y
See All 6 Comments
Dilara @BarbaraBB They were colonised by Spain, but Spanish is an institutional language. Having common Spanish words in an English text makes sense when you have a novel with Hispanic characters in an Anglophone setting, because they may use those words (family titles, etc.) and code-switch, even inside of an English sentence. Here, we have a novel written in Spanish and translated into Spanglish for no good reason that I can fathom... 3y
Dilara ... where Spanish words are used for the concepts least likely to be expressed with Spanish words - family relationships. That's an odd choice. 3y
BarbaraBB I see, that is interesting to know. Odd indeed. Disappointing that the translator didn‘t think of that. (edited) 3y
19 likes6 comments
review
BarbaraBB
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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Mehso-so

I got a rare and unique insight in #EquatorialGuinea, a country I knew nothing about, a country that never makes the news. Having said that, the story was not written well. It‘s about the coming out of a girl, being a so called “man-woman”. I appreciate the book though for learning about this small country.

#ReadingAfrica2022 🇬🇶 #pop22 #AboutGenderIdentity #Booked2022 #ComingOutStory #52BooksIn52weeks #IndieRead
(Pic: Shoreditch, London)

Cinfhen Kudos for finding a book for this country!! I took an awesome graffiti street tour in Shoreditch a few years back😍So fun and more sunny days ♥️ 3y
squirrelbrain Great work on all the challenges! 3y
Librarybelle Look at all of those prompts! 3y
74 likes1 stack add3 comments
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BarbaraBB
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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#WeeklyForecast 14/22

This week‘s line up consists of a Dutch one with cutlery on the cover (for a challenge prompt!), an African book and one from the International Booker longlist. Looking forward to all of them!
In between I am reading little bits of The Books of Jacob. It‘s hard work!

vivastory I've heard nothing but high praise for Elena Knows. I'll be curious what you think. 3y
BarbaraBB @vivastory I‘ll let you know. Cover and blurb are promising for sure! 3y
Simona I really liked Elena Knows, and I agree that reading Books of Jacob is hard work, but very fulfilling … 3y
64 likes3 comments
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Afua
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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Pickpick

I‘m always humbled when books remind me of all the stories from places I wouldn‘t know to reach for. Humbled even more that as much as queerness is declared unAfrican, here we are, all over the literature & histories across the continent.

This book was a mirror of so much & a reminder of so much more. The quick sarcasm & then the painful earnestness the lead navigates the world with(same Okomo) are things I loved and will remember to hold dear🧡

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Lindy
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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Pickpick

An amazing, eye-opening novella about a lesbian teen, Okomo, an orphan who lives with her grandparents in a traditional Fang settlement in Equatorial Guinea. Despite the odds being against her—same sex love is reviled by the villagers, and her family expects Okomo to bring them dowry wealth by attracting a husband—this story has a happy ending. #Translation from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel. #WITmonth #LGBTQ

41 likes3 stack adds
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Lindy
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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“Your uncle was never a normal child. Ever since he was little, he liked women‘s things: cooking, cleaning, smiling, and talking too much. Your mother‘s home was like a church altar it was so clean!”

(Internet photo)

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Lindy
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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“What is a woman without a man? Dina is on the brink of old age—she is 18 years old and has no husband! And her family still has not benefited from her body.”

(Internet image)

sarahbarnes 🤯🤯🤯 on multiple levels with this quote. 4y
Tanisha_A 🤯 4y
36 likes2 comments
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Lindy
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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The men left for the House of the Word to wait for the food, and the women went into one of the two kitchens depending on their place in the hierarchy of polygamous families. First wives went into my grandmother‘s kitchen, while second, third, fourth (and so on) wives went over to the kitchen of Osá‘s second wife. The two groups hated each other intensely.

27 likes1 stack add
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Emilymdxn
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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I‘m late to the party on this one but I wanted to post about this book I just discovered that I‘ll be buying when I can afford it! La Bastarda is the first book by a woman from Equatorial Guinea to be translated into English, and it‘s by a bisexual woman tackling homophobia in her country. Putting this out there for pride month, #blacklivesmatter and #blackpublishingpower pick that has excellent reviews. Wish I had the funds to try it myself rn!

squirrelbrain Sounds really interesting - stacked. (cos I also can‘t afford books right now 😕) 4y
64 likes6 stack adds1 comment
review
ReadingEnvy
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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Pickpick

"The first novel by an Equatorial Guinean woman to be translated into English, this is the story of the orphaned teen Okomo, who lives under the watchful eye of her grandmother and dreams of finding her father. Forbidden from seeking him out, she enlists the help of other outcasts: her gay uncle and a gang of girls. Drawn into their illicit trysts, Okomo finds herself rebelling against the rigid norms of Fang culture."

ReadingEnvy This is a quick read but immediately immerses you into the Fang cultural expectations through Okomo's eyes, because she has so many limitations beyond her control. I had to do some reading about Equatorial Guinea, and I think my first surprise was that the novel was translated from the Spanish! The fighting between wives was also reminiscent of The First Wife by Paulina Chiziane. 5y
54 likes1 comment
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kayceecruz
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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It has been a while but I am currently working on my June/Pride month TBR. We are starting with "La Bastarda" by Trifonia Melibea Obono translated to English by Lawrence Schimel.

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DMC_run8
La Bastarda | Trifonia Melibea Obono
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Mehso-so

I really wanted to like this book. It wasn't bad (I would give it 3.5/5 stars. I really feel like something was lost in the translation.