The Gods of Tango

April 20, 2015
De Robertis’s beautifully written third novel (after Perla and The Invisible Mountain) follows the trajectory of Italian immigrant Leda Mazzoni, who lives as a man in order to support herself in Argentina circa 1913. The story opens as Leda leaves the small Italian village of Alazzano to make a new life in Buenos Aires with her cousin Dante, to whom she is promised in marriage. When she arrives and finds that Dante has been killed, Leda resolves to make her new life work but is disheartened when she realizes that prostitution is the only avenue open to unmarried women without means. So she decides to don her dead husband’s clothes and take his name, finding a job at a cigarette factory and playing tangos on her heirloom violin at night. Leda, posing as Dante, catches the ear of a fairly successful band leader, who recruits her for his group. As the author chronicles Leda’s transformation, the book sometimes switches to the perspective of a minor character, making for a richer but still-cohesive narrative that describes the lives of a working-class Argentineans. The entire novel makes for a poetic read, with De Robertis penning effortlessly lyrical sentences. The novel is true to its time and manages to be engrossing and believable, though it weakens after Leda’s secret is discovered. A clunky third act almost derails an otherwise strong story, but De Robertis’s wonderful prose manages to save it.

May 1, 2015
A woman in drag navigates the man's world of tango music a century ago. Leda, the heroine of De Robertis' third novel (The Invisible Mountain, 2009; Perla, 2012), arrives in Buenos Aires from her native Italy in 1913 expecting to start a new life with her husband, a cousin she married by proxy in Naples. But she gets bad news practically from the moment she steps off the gangplank: Dante was killed at a protest rally, leaving her struggling to get by in an overcrowded conventillo where single women are expected to sew for a living and avoid the streets at night. But carrying her father's violin and dressed in Dante's clothes, she infiltrates the city's rowdy tango clubs, typically attached to brothels. When a violinist is stabbed onstage, Leda sees an opening to enter this exclusively male world of musicians; taking her late husband's name, she eventually plays a central role in a group that becomes a sensation over the next five years. Plotwise, the core story contains few surprises: the novel tracks Leda/Dante's rise in this musical demimonde, with familiar star-is-born detail and somewhat purple reveries about the music's uplift. But the character's gender switch (loosely inspired by the life of jazz pianist Billy Tipton, who passed as a man for decades) is a critical part of this novel, giving depth and a much-needed sense of surprise to the story. Relationships with various women, from prostitutes to the owner of the club where he performs, complicate Leda's shifting gender identity and thoughtfully raise questions of male power and the moral issues of Leda/Dante's claiming and wielding it. The novel is a plea to embrace "the bright jagged thing you really are," and in its hero's more contemplative, interior moments, De Robertis captures the enormity of that struggle. A conventional up-by-one's-bootstraps tale redeemed by the complex musician at its center.

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Starred review from February 1, 2016

This beautifully lyrical story opens in 1913, when Leda, a young woman from a small village in Italy, sails to Buenos Aires to join her husband, Dante, who emigrated three years earlier. Upon arrival, she learns Dante was killed; she now has to figure out how to survive in a place with no opportunities for women. After many nights of listening to musicians playing on local streets, she picks up her violin and begs to be taught how to play the tango. This is a scandalous request-at this point in history, the tango is played only in brothels and back alley clubs, never in places frequented by respectable people, particularly women. Yet her request is granted. Rather than risk falling into poverty and prostitution, Leda takes her husband's clothing and name and decides to live as a man, which enables her to find work as a musician. Leda, now Dante, slips away to a distant neighborhood where no one knows her and begins her new life. The evolution of her life as a man and as a musician is told alongside the social history of Argentina as well as the history of the tango as it changes over time, affected by assorted cultural and class influences. Beautifully written erotic love scenes make this book better suited for older teens. VERDICT This lush story of love, passion, and tango will appeal to older teen fans of romance and historical fiction.-Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, CA

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2015
There is something inherently alluring about the tango, the Argentine music and dance that originated in the early years of the twentieth century in the dockside bars of Buenos Aires. De Robertis' latest novel captures that allure in a rich feast of history and human drama that explores the immigrant experience of Italians attempting to take advantage of the economic opportunities promised by the rapidly developing Argentine Republic, voiced nearly as vociferously as promises held out by the American Republic in the Northern Hemisphere. The author chooses one particular character to follow through the frightening series of episodes that make up the whole experience, from dangerous transit from Old World to New to having to squarely face a world of strangers to then having to find a livelihood in a foreign place. In 1913, Leda sails to Buenos Aires, where her fiance had gone earlier, only to find that in the meantime he has died in a labor demonstration. Boldly, she resolves to stay put, and brazenly, once she hears the tango tunes by which she is surrounded, she decides to master the violin. Even more brazenly, given the restrictions on female participation in the tango scene, she assumes full drag and renames herself Dante. Leda/Dante's strength of character finds a perfect home in De Robertis' strong narrative.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

Starred review from June 1, 2015

In 1913, young Italian Leda Mazzoni lands in bustling Buenos Aires, ready to begin a new life with a husband awaiting her there. When tragedy leaves Leda alone and in debt, she turns to her most valued possession--her father's antique violin, which she brought from Italy--to support herself. As a burgeoning labor movement sweeps across Argentina, so does an unfamiliar style of music and dance, the seductive tango. With the horrific memory of her cousin Cora's suicide haunting her, Leda decides it's time to take drastic steps to live freely and purposefully. Her journey is both unconventional and universal, as she navigates the rough dance halls and high-class nightclubs that cater to fans of the tango, searching for herself and for love. De Robertis (The Invisible Mountain; Perla) draws upon her family's Uruguayan heritage and expatriate experiences to paint a rich vision of Leda's world, the layers of Argentine society as encountered by an immigrant, and her inner struggles with gender identity and sexuality. VERDICT This beautifully realized work is as evocative and textured as the tango itself. De Robertis deserves to share fans with the likes of Isabel Allende and Julia Alvarez, not just for creating similar settings but for masterly storytelling. [See Prepub Alert, 1/5/15.]--Jennifer B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll. Northeast

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2015

De Robertis, whose The Invisible Mountain was an international best seller with a lot of best book shout-outs in this country, echoes that novel and her following, much-praised Perla by continuing to explore the fate of women swimming against the floodwaters in 20th-century Latin America. In 1913, 17-year-old Leda arrives in Buenos Aires from Italy to discover that her intended husband has been killed. She stays on, isolated and impoverished, until she finds herself drawn to the music of the tango. Snipping off her hair and grabbing her father's violin, which she brought from Italy, she takes on the persona of a young man named Dante and joins a group of tango musicians intent on bringing the lowlife tango to society's upper reaches. Alas, for Leda there will be some emotional confusion--and real danger--along the way.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2015

In 1913, young Italian Leda Mazzoni lands in bustling Buenos Aires, ready to begin a new life with a husband awaiting her there. When tragedy leaves Leda alone and in debt, she turns to her most valued possession--her father's antique violin, which she brought from Italy--to support herself. As a burgeoning labor movement sweeps across Argentina, so does an unfamiliar style of music and dance, the seductive tango. With the horrific memory of her cousin Cora's suicide haunting her, Leda decides it's time to take drastic steps to live freely and purposefully. Her journey is both unconventional and universal, as she navigates the rough dance halls and high-class nightclubs that cater to fans of the tango, searching for herself and for love. De Robertis (The Invisible Mountain; Perla) draws upon her family's Uruguayan heritage and expatriate experiences to paint a rich vision of Leda's world, the layers of Argentine society as encountered by an immigrant, and her inner struggles with gender identity and sexuality. VERDICT This beautifully realized work is as evocative and textured as the tango itself. De Robertis deserves to share fans with the likes of Isabel Allende and Julia Alvarez, not just for creating similar settings but for masterly storytelling. [See Prepub Alert, 1/5/15.]--Jennifer B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll. Northeast

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.