1913. Seventeen year old Leda is about to leave Italy to marry Dante who already migrated to Argentina. He went ahead to get settled before sending for her. Leda is taking her father's violin - it has been passed from father to son for generations. Though Leda knows how to play, tradition is tradition.
When Leda arrives in Buenos Aires, she is met by a stranger who tells her that her husband Dante has died. Money has been raised for her to have a room in their tenement for a couple of months while she decides what to do next.
Her family wants her to come home to Italy. There are few jobs open to a single woman. She can join the others in her building sewing, but it will only earn her enough to share a room with a bunch of other women. A man who comes to play the violin one afternoon tells her that women cannot play - tango is played in places unsafe for a woman.
But tango calls to Leda. And her husband's clothing is in a closet in her room. Could she pass as a man to play the violin? She would have to give up everyone she knows in Buenos Aires and move away in the night, cutting off her long hair...
De Robertis's story following the growth of the tango. From it African roots, added to by other groups of migrants to Argentina - German, Italian - and influence by Paris in a cyclical loop. The music, the dancing, the characters, the whole book is a love story to both the tango and to finding you place no matter your initial circumstances.
De Robertis, Carolina. (2015). The Gods of Tango. New York: Vintage Books.
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