PREMIO CLARÍN 2017
En esta despiadada distopía -tan brutal como sutil, tan alegórica como
realista-, Agustina Bazterrica inspira, con el poder explosivo de la
ficción, sensaciones y debates de suma actualidad.
La súbita aparición de un virus letal que ataca a los animales modifica
de manera irreversible el mundo: desde las fieras hasta las mascotas
deben ser sistemáticamente sacrificadas, y su carne ya no puede ser
consumida. Los gobiernos enfrentan la situación con una decisión
drástica: legalizando la cría, reproducción, 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 frigorífico Krieg, separado de su
esposa y a cargo de su padre, es un oscuro burócrata. El día en que
recibe como regalo una mujer criada para el consumo, las tentaciones lo
transforman en una conciencia peligrosa de pliegues truculentos que lo
llevará a transgredir las nuevas normas hasta límites que la sociedad
desconoce.
¿Qué resto de humanidad cabe cuando los muertos son cremados para evitar
su consumo? ¿Quién 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.
