Beyond the barbed wire fence lies the monte: an impenetrable, green inferno with no room for air. On this side stands the home of Dr. Gorgonio Riera Brites, a doctor and veterinarian. To reach his dual clinics, one must traverse a red dirt road—the very same path that leads to the cemetery. Here, in the heart of Paraguay, an Argentine philosophy student and her boyfriend arrive to endure a strange, disturbing duel that will test them both physically and mentally.

Buzzing flies, a blind hen with bronchitis, mutant trees, a barking parrot, women in trances, competing widows and healers populate a tale brimming with strangeness, tension and an exuberance that borders on the hallucinatory. Seamlessly blending the beautiful and the fantastic, irony and fear, Martín Sancia Kawamichi channels Guaraní culture through exquisite prose to construct the mesmerizing plot of Kurepa, a novel awarded the prestigious First Prize by the Argentine National Endowment for the Arts in 2023 and on the shortlist of the Medifé Filba 2026 Award.

 

“Sancia Kawamichi’s precise and poetic prose sustains a universe of strange creatures, generational tensions, and desire. Set in the Paraguayan forest, the novel expands a hypnotic atmosphere where language, heat, and delirium transform the characters’ perception.”— Clarín

“ Kurepa keeps whoever delves into its pages on the edge of the discomfort that characterizes the fantasy genre. […] it submerges the reader in a trance that transports them to the vegetation of that house in the middle of the jungle.” — Diario La Capital de Mar del Plata

 

265 pages – Original language: Spanish/Argentina (La Crujía, 2025). Foreign Editions: Portuguese Brazilian (Pinard, 2027)