Cobra

The late Severo Sarduy was one of the most outrageous and baroque of the Latin American Boom writers of the sixties and seventies, and Cobra was his finest creation.

Originally published in 1972, Cobra recounts the tale of its eponymous heroine, queen of the Lyrical Theater of Dolls, whose obsession is to transform her body. She is assisted in her metamorphosis by the Madam and Pup, Cobra's dwarfish double. They, too, change shape, through the violent ceremonies of a motorcycle gang, into a sect of Tibetan lamas seeking to revive Tantric Buddhism. In its spiraling series of transmutations, Cobra constructs a labyrinthine voyage, a "magical juggling act" (New York Times Book Review).

In its first edition from Dalkey Archive Press, Cobra was bound with Sarduy's novel Maitreya (1978) which furthers the theme of metamorphosis. Transgressing genres and genders, reveling in literal and figurative transvestism, Sarduy's work is among the most daring achievements of postmodern Latin American fiction.