And then Indiana throws a host of disparate elements into the mix: time travel, bifurcated consciousnesses, “chosen one” narratives, some art-world satire, pirates, and the music of Giorgio Moroder. (Indiana refers to Acilde by female pronouns before she takes this, and by male pronouns afterwards.) So far, this all seems familiar: a protagonist with humble roots, a world where today’s issues have been taken to another level, and a tangible goal that they’re working towards. Protagonist Acilde works a series of jobs, including sex work, while saving money to pay for a futuristic drug that’s taken the place of gender affirmation surgery. The novel opens in the Dominican Republic–specifically, Santo Domingo in the near future, where environmental devastation abounds alongside economic inequality. To say that there are certain tropes that surround time travel would be a massive understatement, and yet: I’m not sure there’s ever been a story of moving through time quite like Rita Indiana’s heady and surreal novel Tentacle. Stories centered around it can explore the bizarre paradoxes that it generates, or lose the reader in the thrills or dangers that can arise from journeying into the past or future.

Time travel occurs in contexts both science fictional and fantastical. Tobias Carroll ( Tor.com) reviews Tentacle, the English language version of acclaimed Dominican writer Rita Indiana’s La mucama de Omicunlé, translated by Cuba-American author Achy Obejas.

Tentacle rita indiana review