Clarín Novel Prize, Ladies of Horror Fiction Award, one of the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror books of 2020 according to The Washington Post, and finalist of the Goodreads Choice Awards

With over 200,000 readers worldwide, translated into 23 languages and audiovisual rights sold

A ruthless dystopia in which Agustina Bazterrica inspires, with the explosive power of fiction, highly relevant debates

The sudden appearance of a lethal virus that attacks animals irreversibly changes the world: from wild beasts to pets must be systematically sacrificed, and their meat can no longer be consumed. Governments face the situation with a drastic decision: legalizing the breeding, reproduction, slaughter, and processing of human meat. Cannibalism is law, and society has been divided into two groups: those who eat and those who are eaten.

Marcos Tejo, general manager of the Krieg slaughterhouse, separated from his wife and in charge of his father, is a dark bureaucrat. The day he receives as a gift a woman raised for consumption, temptations transform him into a dangerous conscience with sinister folds that will lead him to transgress the new rules to limits unknown to society.

What remains of humanity when the dead are cremated to prevent their consumption? Who is the other if, truly, we are what we eat?

Review:
“A major novel, whose action takes place within a dense and hypnotic atmosphere in which the reader is trapped from the first lines as if they were one of its characters.”
Juan José Millás

“Horribly effective. […] This provocative novel skillfully wields a double-edged knife.”
The Guardian

“From the first words of Argentine novelist Agustina Bazterrica’s second novel, Cadáver exquisito, the reader is already the cattle in the line, staggering, primarily aware that this book is a slaughterhouse, and nothing that happens next will be pretty.”
New York Times Book Review

“At what cost is a world without animals viable? That is the question posed by Argentine author Agustina Bazterrica. [...] With perfectly calibrated irony, [ella] presents an astonishing portrait of humanity willing to do anything to satisfy itself, even at its own expense.”
Le Monde

“A biting and uncompromising expression of what happens daily in our society.”
La Nación

“With direct and stripped-down language, Cadáver exquisito delves into the sinister mechanisms of a dystopian and cannibalistic society. The images, both repulsive and fascinating, at times recall the violent paintings of Francis Bacon. The novel surrounds the reader with a sense of threat by making visible some dark and normalized practices of current life.”
Pedro Mairal

“Written in minimalist, highly precise language, Cadáver exquisito is a striking fable about cruelty among human beings, though not devoid of poetry.”
Clarín

“A sharp cannibal story. [...] There is an incisive and ruthless verbalization of what happens in society [...]. There are no euphemisms in Cadáver exquisito.”
Mª José R. Murguiondo, La Nación

“Bazterrica outlines a flexible, universal language; capable of condensing terror, drama, empathy, and despair.”
Marvel Aguilera, Revista Kunst