Queen Cocaine

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A young Catalan woman, inspired by a persecuted writer, ventures into the jungles of Colombia, where her familiar world collapses. Isolated in a region plagued by relentless rain, she begins to see the ominous signs of a devastating war reflected in her lover and the people around her. The narrative oscillates between intimacy and horror as she witnesses a hell that forces her to abandon everything except her reinvented language, her only refuge to articulate the myriad faces of death she encounters. The author, based in Barcelona, infuses the story with an alien sensibility and a lush, invented language, creating a paranoid fever dream reminiscent of the works of Rulfo, Fanon, and Lispector, all through the perspective of a doomed outsider. The portrayal of Colombia's Pacific coast is vivid, capturing an indifferent sea, relentless rains, and a jungle teeming with danger. A traumatic forced evacuation near the end deepens the narrative, presenting a grimly poetic account of a South American heart of darkness. This revelatory tale is likened to the testimony of a shell-shocked survivor, offering a brilliant depiction of the horrors of drug cultivation. Recommended for those interested in Latin American culture, it combines intelligence with critical insight.