Set in 1990s Bogotá, readers follow father and daughter Ignacio and Valentina as they traverse grief, depression, gender, and the yearning to self-actualize amid a civil war. Their tales intertwine, transporting the reader between decades and memories, all through Spanglish prose . . . Ultimately, the novel is about what happens when someone rejects their queer destiny -- and more importantly, what happens to descendants who are left to grapple with intergenerational suppression.--Quispe López "them"

Delgado Lopera dives into Colombia's taboo queer culture in this scintillating narrative of a man torn between belonging and self-expression . . . The author's turns of phrase are striking and indelible, and the characters are deeply and lovingly portrayed . . . It's exquisite.--Publishers Weekly, starred review

Delgado Lopera is a writer whose sentences make your heart race, and Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You, with its unmasking of lies, makings of new truths, insights into the human heart, is generous, imaginative, revelatory, enraging, and loving. Read it and let the lightning of its prose bring you alive again.--Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less and Less Is Lost

A colorful, dazzling new novel from the award-winning author of Fiebre Tropical. This book takes place in Colombia's underground queer scene and tackles self-loathing with equal measure of earnestness and irreverence.--Queerty, "Our Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books of 2026"

A perfectly calibrated novel that captures the gritty contours of masculinity and homophobia in Colombia through lush, lyric, and irresistible prose. . . . We are braver and freer because of the novel Julián Delgado Lopera has written.--Ruben Reyes Jr., author of There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven and Archive of Unknown Universes

Every once in a while you come across a book so bursting with life that the pages seem to be sprouting, delivered in a never-heard-before idiom that must have been invented just to transmit so much aliveness. Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You is that book and Julián Delgado Lopera is one of the most exciting writers in all the Americas.--Torrey Peters, author of Stag Dance and Detransition, Baby

Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You has it all: sequins and pelucas, secrets and sorrow. Julián Delgado Lopera's novel burns with the fever of Bogotá's queer underground while laying bare the ache of fractured families. . . . This is a work as innovative in voice as it is fearless in heart.--Alex Espinoza, author of The Sons of El Rey

A linguistic marvel of collective consciousness.--Sarah Schulman, author of The Cosmopolitans

A thrilling ride, not only through the farmlands and cities of Colombia, but through time's imperfect vessel, life. . . . Julián Delgado Lopera has gifts to spare, and this classic novel is a present for us all.--Alejandro Varela, author of Middle Spoon

A majestic and otherworldly novel of first love, longing for family and escape, and the struggle to release the ghosts we carry. . . . This novel is a torrential downpour that will leave you trembling toward your own freedom.--Santiago Jose Sanchez, author of Hombrecito

Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation

Pub date: 2026-05-26

Length: 336 pages