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.

Severo Sarduy (1937-1993), Cuban poet, fiction writer, playwright, and literary critic, is considered one of the best prose artists of the twentieth century. In 1972, he was awarded the Prix Médicis for Cobra, one of his six highly acclaimed novels. Sarduy also painted, hosted a radio program, and, as an editor at Editions du Seuil, introduced contemporary Latin American fiction to European readers. Sarduy was a leading intellectual in the early years of the Cuban Revolution.

Having translated Manuel Puig, Julio Cortazar, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, and other notable authors, Suzanne Jill Levine is one of the most highly regarded translators of contemporary Latin American literature. She is a professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the author of The Subversive Scribe: Translating Latin American Fiction.

James McCourt is the author of Mawrdew Czgowchwz, Time Remaining, Delancey s Way, Now Voyagers: The Night Sea Journey and Queer Street. He has contributed to the Yale Review, The New Yorker, and the Paris Review. He lives in New York City and Washington, D.C.