"...the Barcelona-based Catalan author brings an alien sensibility and lush, invented language to Queen Cocaine, set in Colombia's war-ravaged countryside.... Amat's book is a paranoid fever dream of a peasant novel – heir to those of Rulfo and Fanon, but also Lispector – filtered through the gaze of her doomed outsider." – The Village Voice

"Amat deftly conjures the funereal landscape of Colombia's Pacific coast — an indifferent sea; intemperate rains; a jungle carpeted with snakes and punctuated by swamps... a traumatic forced evacuation of the village near the end adds gravitas to the book, which is an acute, grimly poetic account of a South American heart of darkness." — Publishers Weekly

“A happy combination of intelligence and critical insight.” – Juan Goytisolo, Times Literary Supplement

"In all, a revelatory tale that reads like the testimony of a shell-shocked survivor." – Kirkus Reviews

"[An] apocalyptic novel by Spanish writer Amat . . . A brilliant portrayal of the horrors of drug cultivation; recommended for all general collections, especially where there is an interest in Latin American culture." – Library Journal

“An extraordinary novel in contemporary Spanish fiction.”– El Mundo

“In this striking Queen Cocaine, Nuria Amat’s terse, almost sleep-walking style is subject to the test of fire of a real war, the one waged in Colombia.” – César Aira

Nuria Amat was born in Barcelona, where she now lives. She regularly contributes to the Spanish press and is the author of novels, stories, and essays.