Luis Carlos Barragán is a Colombian science fiction artist and writer based in Cairo, Egypt. He received his B.A in Arts in Colombia and his M.A in Islamic Art and Architecture in Egypt.
The Worm by Luis Carlos Barragán
Coming soon: late 2025/early 2026.
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Douglas Adams meets Jonathan Swift, with feet firmly on Colombian soil but head high in the cosmos.
—Emily Hart, New York Times
As part of our Sol Oculto series, Wanton Sun is proud to publish Luis Carlos Barragán novel The Worm. Previously published in Spanish as El Gusano by our good friends, Holobionte, this is the first English translation of this mindbending slice of New Weird fiction.
In Barragán’s parallel reality, set in Colombia, humans have developed the ability to fuse with each other’s bodies upon contact. Strange new hybrids are formed; some people disappear completely inside the bodies of others. Others fuse memories and emotions as well as flesh, their consciousness spanning multiple human hosts.
At first there is resistance. Sexual relations are banned and a pervading despair envelops the globe. Then comes acceptance: flesh-fusion cults are formed and mutant guerillas are armed, battling the anti-fusion forces of dystopian Columbia. Amid it all is the enormous, mysterious worm, a bizarre, ever-growing creature that feeds on and is a part of the the bonded human daisy chain set to span the globe.
