Gustavo Rodríguez's new novel, Mamita, is now out in Spanish, published by Alfaguara/PRH. Mamita arrives two years after the Peruvian author received the prestigious Alfaguara Novel Prize for his previous novel, Cien cuyes (One Hundred Guinea Pigs). Both Cien cuyes and Mamita will be published by Charco Press in English. Cien cuyes will hit bookstores in the US and the UK in early 2026, with a translation by Daniel Hahn, while Mamita is set to be published in English in late 2027.
With Mamita , Gustavo Rodríguez delivers one of his most personal and insightful novels—a family memoir that is also an exploration of literary creation. It is a metafictional novel showcasing the author’s signature witty prose which traces his family’s extraordinary history dating back to the Peruvian Amazon rubber boom and its dark legacy. It is ahall of mirrors where the fresh, witty, and confessional prose of one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Latin American literature shines brightly.
"[Mamita] confronts collective oblivion, from the Amazonian genocide to familial abandonment. A work written against time, ignorance, and silence. ... In Mamita lies a foundational wound—a kind of original family sin that runs through the narrative and, once revealed, invites readers to confront their own hidden histories.” ABC
"In his previous novel, Rodríguez confronted death head-on, but in this one he takes a step closer still, to see its face—that of his own mother." La Razón
All other translation and audiovisual rights are available.
In Mamita, the protagonist of this novel has postponed a duty that for decades has weighed on him: telling the extraordinary story of his grandparents and mother, whose roots trace back to the early 20th century in the Peruvian Amazon. His grandfather, Otoniel Vela, was a prominent rubber trader who mingled with some of the most illustrious figures of his time—such as Gustave Eiffel and Jules Verne—while also taking part in a much darker chapter of history: the rubber boom Putumayo genocide, in which the prolonged enslavement and mistreatment of native populations led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Indigenous peoples.
With his mother nearing ninety, he knows the time has come to settle that debt. And so, Mamita comes to life—a novel that intertwines two deeply personal threads: the memory of filial love and the very process of writing. Through city wanderings, jungle recollections, and literary reflections, the writer-son explores the nature of his family bonds, the social and racial tensions that shaped them, and the indelible mark of loss. At the same time, he wrestles with the challenges of storytelling, striving to capture what time so often renders irretrievable.
In the meantime, Cien cuyes is already reaching international readers in French (published by Éditions de l’Observatoire), Italian (published by Bompiani) and Greek (published by Klidarithmos) and will be published in English in the US and the UK in early 2026, with a translation by Daniel Hahn.
In the photos above, Gustavo Rodríguez visited the stunning Giunti Odean bookstore in Florence, Italy, where he found a tall stack of the Italian translation of Cien cuyes on the "Topsellers" table! He signed some stock to the delight of booksellers, who were pleasantly surprised at his unexpected visit.
For more information about the above titles, please contact Anna Soler-Pont (anna@pontas-agency.com).