Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You: A Novel by Julián Delgado Lopera (Hardcover)

Fiction - Literary - Hispanic and Latino - Family Life - Magical Realism -  LGBTQ+ - Transgender

RELEASE DATE: 5/26/2026  (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE) 

From the award-winning author of Fiebre Tropical, an electric, highly anticipated novel set in Colombia’s underground queer scene.

Isolated in a dreary Bogotá apartment, Ignacio’s light has dimmed, leaving his teenage daughter Valentina to raise herself in the wake of her mother’s death. Valentina longs to discover the details of her mother’s drowning and for Ignacio to snap out of his depression―his listless afternoons spent smoking cigarettes in long blonde wigs, telenovelas humming in the background, haunted by memories of the young man he loved and betrayed.

From Ignacio’s dark past emerges the luminous Mamadora Eléctrica, the wise travesti who introduced Ignacio to the city’s queer scene years prior. Stepping into a maternal role for Valentina, Mamadora fears the worst: that Ignacio’s self-loathing may have unleashed a curse on them all. A profound and irreverent story about coming undone, Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You affirms Julián Delgado Lopera as a brilliant and singular voice―“a writer who is grinding their own colors” (Dwight Garner, The New York Times).

AUTHOR BIO: 

Julián Delgado Lopera is the author of Fiebre Tropical, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and finalist for the Kirkus Prize and Aspen Literary Prize, among other honors. Born and raised in Colombia, Julián teaches Creative Writing at CUNY. He lives in Brooklyn.

Delgado Lopera dives into Colombia's taboo queer culture in this scintillating narrative of a man torn between belonging and self-expression . . . The author's turns of phrase are striking and indelible, and the characters are deeply and lovingly portrayed . . . It's exquisite.--Publishers Weekly, starred review

A perfectly calibrated novel that captures the gritty contours of masculinity and homophobia in Colombia through lush, lyric, and irresistible prose. . . . We are braver and freer because of the novel Julián Delgado Lopera has written.--Ruben Reyes Jr., author of There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven and Archive of Unknown Universes

A majestic and otherworldly novel of first love, longing for family and escape, and the struggle to release the ghosts we carry. . . . This novel is a torrential downpour that will leave you trembling toward your own freedom.--Santiago Jose Sanchez, author of Hombrecito