For Equatorial Guinea, I read La Bastarda: A Novel by Trifonia Melibea Obono, translated from the Spanish by Lawrence Schimel. This book is a fast read that packs a huge emotional punch while covering a broad range of difficult issues.

The protagonist Okomo is an orphaned teen who lives with her grandparents in a small Fang community with rigid norms and expectations. She is already an outcast by virtue of being an orphan, but then she also dares to be a queer tomboy in a polygamous culture that devalues women. Although her grandparents would like to control and tame her, Okomo rebels against the constraints of her society so that she can walk her own path.

The book’s dedication sums up its themes nicely:

For all those who suffer due to, or advocate in favor of, a way of life adapted to individual and collective freedoms.

La Bastarda is banned in Equatorial Guinea because it has lesbian characters. Ugh. This quest keeps reminding me, again and again, that not all peoples around the world experience the same liberties that I do. That my freedom of speech is a sacred right in a world that often silences the prophets and dissidents.

There were some harsh (even cruel) reviews of this book on Goodreads, but I give this book four out of five stars for being a howl of dissent against a suffocating culture. Not every book needs to be written by Hemingway or Shakespeare to merit a good review. La Bastarda is not the best novel I’ve ever read, but the author spoke up bravely, fiercely, and clearly about important issues and made me think. She did such a good job of undermining her country’s status quo, her book was banned. Bravo! May we all be so brave as to write books that are banned.

Thanks to my Read Around the World quest, I no longer judge or review books based on rigid rubrics handed down by professors who live in towers. This book was written by an oppressed minority in a country whose “government” commits human rights violations to silence any dissent, and the author brought the setting and themes to life. Perhaps the story could have been better developed. Perhaps an editor could have helped the author improve her writing style. But who cares? Not every book needs to impress my old literature professors who were obsessed with Shakespeare and Hemingway.