A review by jayisreading
La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono

emotional reflective fast-paced

3.5

As the first novel translated into English and written by an Equatorial Guinean woman, I was rather curious about this relatively short book and what was in store for me. La Bastarda is very much a coming-of-age novel about a girl who, in a way, reaches self-actualization toward the end, after much conflict with traditions and cultural expectations. It was also interesting to learn more about Equatorial Guinea through the eyes of a teenage girl, and I felt that Obono did an excellent job at presenting her sincere perspective as she tried to make sense of her own sexuality in a deeply patriarchal society.

I think what fell short for me with La Bastarda was that I wanted more than what was given. This novel doesn’t even hit a hundred pages, so I felt there were a lot of ideas and characters (including the protagonist) that could have been developed more. However, this could also be me missing things that Obono inferred, as I don’t know anything about the culture and history. As a result, the afterword ended up being rather useful to help contextualize some things, though I still felt that she could have developed the novel a bit more.

Lastly, I didn’t love the translation of the novel, which read somewhat stiffly to me. I’d be curious to know how the novel flows in the original Spanish.
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