A nun expelled from the convent for being transgender.
Angela is a nun who has spent more than thirty years cloistered in a convent. One night, after having prayed in her room, an accident causes the rest of the sisters to discover a secret she had been keeping for decades: she is trans.
After this incident, she was expelled from the congregation. Helpless, seeing how God, the Church and her convent family have turned their backs on her for not being what they expected, she ends up taking refuge in a modest apartment in Lavapiés, a city in Madrid. She will have to learn to live in a new world full of situations very unfamiliar to her. She meets a shopkeeper who falls in love with her, and her elderly neighbor with whom she establishes a very close relationship.
Like a bird raised in captivity that has been released against its will, Angela will look for ways to feel like she did in the convent. Therefore she does not hesitate to push her elderly neighbor down the stairs and turn herself in to the police in order to be locked up in jail. It is the only way she will feel at home once again.
RELEVANT DATA: Blessed Art Thou (Bendita tú eres) is a powerful story with an unconventional protagonist: a trans nun expelled from the congregation, who in full search of her identity will be willing to do anything to feel as safe as in the convent. A character-driven drama in which a nun must rebuild her whole life and undergoes a hellish journey that leads her to a profound transformation.
Carlos Barea is a writer and cultural activist focused on LGTBIQ+ culture. He has collaborated with several media outlets, specializing in LGTBQI+ film and literature criticism, and is a founding member of the association LACAH, whose main objective is to exercise activism through culture.
What the critics have said:
“The greatness of this novel is to make us participants in the fate of this woman, of her wandering, of her erratic walk through a neighborhood that, at the same time, moves her and paralyzes her. Angela’s body is a punching bag.” La Pluma Invertida
“Carlos Barea writes an addictive and original work with meticulousness, in which every sentence is precise and well-rounded. The author is able to build a complex, tormented and fascinating protagonist.” Goodreads
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Movie.
LANGUAGES AVAILABLE: Spanish.
