Bad Girls

Bad Girls by Kit Maude and Camila Sosa Villada is a gritty and unflinching tale that is also tender, fantastical, and funny. This story follows a trans woman on her journey to find a community on the margins. It has been longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award.

In the green heart of Córdoba, Sarmiento Park, a group of trans sex workers make their nightly rounds. When a cry emerges from the darkness, their leader, the 178-year-old Auntie Encarna, delves into the brambles to investigate and discovers a baby half dead from the cold. Rallying her pack, she saves the child, adopting him into their fascinating surrogate family, as they have done with so many other outcasts, including Camila.

Sheltered in Auntie Encarna's fabled pink house, they find partial respite from the daily threats of disease and violence posed by clients, law enforcement, and partners. Through stories of a mute young woman who transforms into a bird, and a Headless Man who fled his country's wars, alongside her own journey from a toxic home, Camila narrates the life of this vibrant community throughout the 90s.

Imbuing reality with the magic of a dark fairy tale, Bad Girls offers an intimate, nuanced portrait of a trans coming-of-age experience, capturing a universal sense of the strangeness of our bodies. The novel grips and entertains while challenging established ideas about love, sexuality, gender, and identity.