Review by Margaret Trotter, July 2026.

EX@WOMAN
By Else Buschheuer
Publisher: ABRAZOS (2026)
Original title: Ex@Frau (Konkursbuchverlag, 2026)
Translation from German: Else Buschheuer
Cover: Claudia Gehrke
ISBN 978-631-6817-01-3

Review by Margaret Trotter:

Writers are advised to write about what they know – Els(e) Buschheuer knows. She/they write fiction as if it comes from their diary, as if recounting to a good friend their thoughts on the indignities that happen to them. Its intimate, its real and its very funny. They tell you everything, the bits where they come over as a brat as well as the lifting joy of a life well lived. This autofiction is written by someone who has trod those boards. They know.

This is a book about oneself. How we might change our gender identity, how we are not as fixed as we think we are. This is the question of our time, told real time.

The protagonist, let’s call them Els, lesbian in her 50’s who drinks in Berlins lesbian bars, lives in the hip Kreuzberg, who dances tango. Gender identities are fixed then changed. Through the development of Els’ friends, butch becomes femme, trans identities mute to mirror hetero relationships, become something else. These fluid identities change before our very eyes, the eyes of Els who reflects and recounts what they see. This is lightening. I am alert to every reveal, as they understand so do I. In real time.

I read on, unable to put the book down, I cancel all engagements so I can focus solely in this emotional emersion. When I have to go somewhere I take the book with me, and talk about it. I cannot stop reading, being on that journey.

I engage in a cultural experience to be emotionally moved, reading this book was seismic.

Early on we are introduced to a character, not explained, a thread who is drip revealed throughout the book and becomes the subject of the third act. A calm shoreline of an early chapter when the tide retreats and then she becomes the emotional swell of the third act that crashes over you.

Her/their story telling features family, and here they are at their most self-deprecatory and entertaining. The sight of a number coming up on your phone can stop you dead, send you into emotional turmoil, we have all been there, their dramatic actions will have you laughing out loud. As for the English translation, I’m super impressed with Els’ ability to use the right phrase, the economy of getting directly to the emotional spot of the story, that describes exactly what I have felt but been unable to articulate so clearly, and that Els lays out for us readers, the ‘fuck’ revelations, so we get it too. Els is confident enough to be vulnerable and to tell us about it. To trust.

We are all affected by changes in family over time, the third act covers Els move from remote daughter to carer for their mother. Nothing is funnier than this, we read agog.
And there is more. At the end of the book, the afterword records a journalist interviewing Els about the book. This, the real, discussing the book, the fiction, reveals a thunderbolt.

I am from the UK and read this superbly written book in English, another reader of the German version told me that it took her back to the lesbian bars of Berlin 20 years ago. A reader of the Spanish version was moved to write her response into the lyrics of a song.

Absolutely the best tango book ever written and one of the best books I have ever read
You do not need to be lesbian or a tango dancer, to enjoy it. Run to buy it, set side everything else, get on this emotional ride. I had to stop reading every few paragraphs to reflect, this book fired off so many thoughts in me, re-living my own experiences. It is a book about me, and also about every reader. Els is also not like me, here is the joy of reading about another, a fascinating character, an emotional extremist. Authentic.

 
Margaret Trotter
Margaret Trotter is a qualified accountant, socialist and political activist working for many years in film and photography educational charities. She lives in London, England, and has been dancing tango for 17 years. She is a founding Trustee of Queer Tango London CIO, the charity that organises Queer Tango London’s activities. She attends QT Festivals in the EU and the Americas and in May 2026, with great pleasure, co-organised Queer Tango IN London, London’s first international queer tango festival bringing together the artists and integrating the good practice created by the other queer festivals.

Else Buschheuer
Else Buschheuer is a German novelist and tango dancer. For more than 30 years, they worked as a freelance journalist and reporter for newspapers and as a presenter for German radio and television programs. They wrote important essays on gender for Süddeutsche Magazin. They have written novels and several nonfiction books. ‘Ruf!Mich!An!’ and ‘Masserberg’ were bestsellers. ‘Masserberg’ was made into a film for German television, and in 2019 Buschheuer won the journalist award for best essay with their text ‘Kriegerin’ (warrioress). “Ex@Frau“ (Konkursbuchverlag, 2026) is their sixth novel and the first that is available in German, with English and Spanish translations titled EX@WOMAN (Abrazos, 2026) and EX@MUJER (Abrazos, 2026). Buschheuer recently performed a chapter from her book EX@WOMEN at the Queer Tango IN London festival.