Ela se chama Rodolfo
Her name is Rodolfo
by Julia Dantas
DBA Editora 2022
264 pages
14×21 cm
«Once upon a time there was a man». But who is this man, and most of all, what does it mean to be a man? As in a mirror maze, distorted images deceive us and nothing is what it seems in this moving and ironic reflection on identity. A touching, funny and unexpected novel.
Murilo tries, unsuccessfully, to enter the apartment he rented: the key does not seem to fit and he starts wondering if he has been deceived. Suddenly, after a precise but random movement, the door opens. Inside the apartment he finds Rodolfo, a turtle left behind by its owner, Francesca.
Murilo finds himself forced to take care of the turtle, and starts an endless online conversation with Francesca, a mysterious woman (what does it mean to be a woman?) who guides him in a tour of the city in search of someone to enthrust with Rodolfo. Meanwhile Murilo, who works as a night porter, is going through a crisis with his girlfriend, who accuses him of being too fragile, too sensitive, not manly enough. He would like to go visit her, but can’t leave Rodolfo on its own.
As their conversation goes on, Francesca becomes a more and more important presence in his life, and more and more Murilo and the turtle Rodolfo get closer, mirrors of one another, both of them fragile souls protected by a shell. When they finally meat, Murilo will find out that Francesca has a secret to share: what does it mean to be a man or a woman? And what does it mean to be a trans person? Does it really change anything at all to their friendship (or is it love)?
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Julia Dantas was born in Porto Alegre in 1985. She is an editor, a translator and a Creative Writing teacher. Her first novel, Ruína y leveza, was shortlisted to the São Paulo Prize for Literature 2016. During the pandemic, she was among the curators of the anthology Fake Fiction and published the pamph- let Pássaros da cidade in the magazine revista Parêntese.
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