PREMIO CLAR N 2017

En esta despiadada distop a -tan brutal como sutil, tan aleg rica como realista-, Agustina Bazterrica inspira, con el poder explosivo de la ficci n, sensaciones y debates de suma actualidad.

La s bita aparici n de un virus letal que ataca a los animales modifica de manera irreversible el mundo: desde las fieras hasta las mascotas deben ser sistem ticamente sacrificadas, y su carne ya no puede ser consumida. Los gobiernos enfrentan la situaci n con una decisi n dr stica: legalizando la cr a, reproducci n, matanza y procesamiento de carne humana. El canibalismo es ley y la sociedad ha quedado dividida en dos grupos: los que comen y los que son comidos.

Marcos Tejo, encargado general del frigor fico Krieg, separado de su esposa y a cargo de su padre, es un oscuro bur crata. El d a en que recibe como regalo una mujer criada para el consumo, las tentaciones lo transforman en una conciencia peligrosa de pliegues truculentos que lo llevar a transgredir las nuevas normas hasta l mites que la sociedad desconoce.

Qu resto de humanidad cabe cuando los muertos son cremados para evitar su consumo? Qui n es el otro si, de verdad, somos lo que comemos?

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

The electrifying, award-winning, internationally bestselling novel about a dystopian world in which animals have been wiped out, humans are being harvested for food, and society has been divided into those who eat and those who are eaten.

Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans--though no one calls them that anymore. His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that animals had been infected with a virus and their meat had become poisonous. Then governments initiated the Transition. Now, human meat--"special meat"--is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he's given a gift: a specimen of the finest quality. He leaves her in his barn, tied up, a problem to be disposed of later. But she haunts Marcos. Her trembling body, her watchful, knowing eyes. Though he's aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost--and what might still be saved.

From Agustina Bazterrica, one of Latin America's most celebrated and original new voices, Tender Is the Flesh is propulsive and profound, a searing cautionary tale about the cost of consumption and the ties that bind and break us.

Cadáver exquisito (Premio Clarín 2017) / Tender is the Flesh - pocket, Spanska, 2018