Book tender is the flesh7/3/2023 ![]() A career of dehumanizing human livestock has dehumanized him several chapters pass before we’re even sure of his name. Within a cast of cadaver-cold characters, Marcos is the iciest. ![]() ![]() The prime fare, F.G.P.s (First Generation Pure), are born and raised in captivity, artificially inseminated, sold, butchered and plated however you’d like, from “a starter of fingers in a sherry reduction” to a “tongue … marinated in fine herbs, served over kimchi and lemon-dressed potatoes.” The icky euphemism is “special meat.” No one says “human meat,” as the bodies being eaten are not considered human. ![]() Things get hazy here - Bazterrica’s interest is less in near-future world-building than in reflecting our grisly present - but the virus has led to “the Transition,” marked by the extermination of as many animals as possible and, to satisfy man’s innate craving, the adoption of industrialized cannibalism. Marcos Tejo has been dealing “heads” of livestock for the Krieg Processing Plant since a virus rendered all animals toxic for human consumption. Spray wash.” From the first words of the Argentine novelist Agustina Bazterrica’s second novel, “Tender Is the Flesh,” the reader is already the livestock in the line, reeling, primordially aware that this book is a butcher’s block, and nothing that happens next is going to be pretty. ![]() TENDER IS THE FLESH By Agustina Bazterrica Translated by Sarah Moses ![]()
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