What the Forest Devours

'Shocking… violence, motherhood and death in the jungle' Mariana Enríquez, author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

Benedicta has given birth, over and over. But she will never be a mother.

Benedicta lives with her mother, her sister and her many children on a hacienda surrounded by dense rainforest.

The jungle is a hungry god: it allows them to live safely away from a ruthless world of guerrillas and drug traffickers, but at a terrible price. Its voracity is never-ending, and those who live under its control must offer up their children in a sacrificial cycle powered by blood and madness.

One day Romina, a pregnant sex worker from the nearest town, emerges from the rainforest. Will she be the one to break the cycle?

Brutal, powerful and deeply unsettling, this Caribbean gothic fable about motherhood and the female body is a truly unique and unforgettable novel, from a writer at the peak of her powers.

Reviews

‘This shocking novel is the blood that we cannot stop seeing, a story about the voracity of violence, motherhood and death in the jungle, about what makes us human and what makes us cruel. Elaine Vilar Madruga is a powerful, elegant and daring voice. I want to read everything she writes' Mariana Enríquez, author of THE DANGERS OF SMOKING IN BED

About the author

Elaine Vilar Madruga is a playwright, poet, and one of the foremost young novelists in Cuba. She has a degree in Playwriting from the Higher Institute of Art (ISA), has published over thirty books, and her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies around the globe. Her most recent novel The Tyranny of Flies was her first work to receive widespread attention throughout the wider Spanish-speaking world, winning Spain's Cálamo Prize for "Book of the Year.” She lives in Havana.