PREMIO CLARIN 2017

En esta despiadada distopia -tan brutal como sutil, tan alegorica como realista-, Agustina Bazterrica inspira, con el poder explosivo de la ficcion, sensaciones y debates de suma actualidad.

La subita aparicion de un virus letal que ataca a los animales modifica de manera irreversible el mundo: desde las fieras hasta las mascotas deben ser sistematicamente sacrificadas, y su carne ya no puede ser consumida. Los gobiernos enfrentan la situacion con una decision drastica: legalizando la cria, reproduccion, 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 frigorifico Krieg, separado de su esposa y a cargo de su padre, es un oscuro burocrata. El dia en que recibe como regalo una mujer criada para el consumo, las tentaciones lo transforman en una conciencia peligrosa de pliegues truculentos que lo llevara a transgredir las nuevas normas hasta limites que la sociedad desconoce.

?Que resto de humanidad cabe cuando los muertos son cremados para evitar su consumo? ?Quien 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.