Booksmith is thrilled to host the virtual launch for Cantoras author and BFF Carolina De Robertis and her new novel, The President and the Frog. She will be in conversation with the one and only Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen. Join us!

This event is free and all ages, but RSVP is required. Event link will be sent to everyone who registers.

You can order copies of The President and the Frog here and we'll ship directly to you (or hold for pickup at our San Francisco shop).

We are happy to fulfill orders anywhere in the world – international postage will be invoiced separately. If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to contact [email protected].

About the book

At his modest home on the edge of town, the former president of an unnamed Latin American country receives a journalist in his famed gardens to discuss his legacy and the dire circumstances that threaten democracy around the globe. Once known as the Poorest President in the World, his reputation is the stuff of myth: a former guerilla who was jailed for inciting revolution before becoming the face of justice, human rights, and selflessness for his nation. Now, as he talks to the journalist, he wonders if he should reveal the strange secret of his imprisonment: while held in brutal solitary confinement, he survived, in part, by discussing revolution, the quest for dignity, and what it means to love a country, with the only creature who ever spoke back—a loud-mouth frog.

As engrossing as it is innovative, vivid, moving, and full of wit and humor, The President and the Frog explores the resilience of the human spirit and what is possible when danger looms. Ferrying us between a grim jail cell and the president's lush gardens, the tale reaches beyond all borders and invites us to reimagine what it means to lead, to dare, and to dream.

About the authors

A writer of Uruguayan origins, Carolina De Robertis is the author of five novels, including Cantoras, winner of a Stonewall Book Award and a Reading Women Award, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and a Lambda Literary Award, and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Her books have been translated into seventeen languages and have received numerous other honors, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. De Robertis is also an award-winning translator of Latin American and Spanish literature. She teaches at San Francisco State University, and lives in Oakland, California, with her wife and two children.

Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and Tony-nominated producer. A leading voice for the human rights of immigrants, he founded the non-profit media advocacy organization Define American, named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company. In 2020, Fortune named him one of its “40 under 40” most influential people in government and politics. His best-selling memoir, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, was published by HarperCollins in 2018. His second book, White Is Not a Country, will be published by Pantheon Books in 2023. More about Jose here.

This event is free and all ages, but RSVP is required.