Carmen Boullosa

Baby, we really haven’t come a very long way when you consider the women of antiquity. Cleopatra, in particular, had the full power package. The last of Egypt’s pharaohs, influential consort of guys like Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony, a rabble-rouser of the first degree, and a woman who really knew a few things about style, she set a template for feminism that more than two thousand years later remains intimidating. Mexico’s Carmen Boullosa, a writer known for her bold, revisionist takes on history—ancient Mexico, pirates of the Caribbean (sans Johnny Depp), Moctezuma—sets her lavish imagination loose on the life and myth of Queen Cleo. The result is a multi-dimensional, intelligent, and passionate character at the center of a richly detailed world.