Fernanda Trías (Uruguay, 1976) is the author of novels La Azotea
(The Rooftop, Charco Press 2020), La ciudad invencible (The
Invincible City), and the multi-award-winning Mugre rosa (Pink
Slime, Scribe 2023), as well as the short story collection No
soñarás flores (Thou Shall Not Dream Flowers). She lives, writes,
and teaches in Bogotá, Colombia.
Heather Cleary is an award-winning translator of poetry and prose
whose work has been recognised by English PEN, the National Book
Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation, among others.
‘This is a vividly claustrophobic world, stuffed with strong
smells, tastes and pressing hunger … In Heather Cleary’s
thoughtful, poetic translation, it is through exploring the
connections between people, places and things that Pink Slime is at
its best.’
*The Times Literary Supplement*
‘Powerful and beautifully written, this is a disturbing read,
depicting a terrifyingly convincing near-future scenario.’
*The Guardian*
‘This distressing and emotional science-fiction novel that tells
the story of how an inexplicable plague destroys a city … The
collapse of the food supply, bodies, feelings, and the system is
narrated with a heartbreaking beauty.’
*The New York Times*
‘A dystopic work worthy of JG Ballard.’
*The Irish Times*
‘[T]his ominous novel predicts a universe similar to the one that
began with the pandemic, one charged with contradictory
uncertainties, and it acts like a potential environment where the
author can take her obsessions to the extreme and once again
consolidate the oppressive and suffocating form that stands out in
all of her work.’
*Latin American Literature Today*
‘She breaks through parameters, shatters expectations, breaks down
internal walls like that invading algae that changes the lives of
the residents in the town. Almost like Rulfo in Comala. A poetic
and tenacious whirlwind, dreadful and sublime … An extraordinary
work!’
*El País*
‘Unsettling and unpredictable, Uruguayan writer Fernanda Trías’s
new novel describes not merely a dystopia but a full-on Technicolor
apocalypse.’
*The Scotsman*
‘Pink Slime is a powerful novel — short phrases, unusual poetic
twists, the attachment to human ties as a reason to overcome chaos,
the insistence of love over heartbreak despite everything. An
extraordinary dystopian novel. Highly recommended.’
*Gioconda Belli, author of The Country Under My Skin*
‘Halfway between a classic dystopia like 1984 or Farenheit 451 and
one of the great catastrophe novels by J.G. Ballard like The
Drowned World or The Drought … Always intense and evocative, and
with a subtle construction of layers and mechanisms, this new novel
by Fernanda Trías transcends genres and installs itself in a unique
territory, at the border of horror without fully sinking into that
abyss … Trías’s prose, precise and elegant, is able to bravely look
into the abyss with tenderness in the same breath, to return to the
central themes of what it means to be human in our culture, and, at
the same time, to participate in the contemporary debate about the
place that this humanity occupies in a world of crisis. Fernanda
Trías has created a mirror where we can see these strange times we
are having to live through, and has given her faithful readers the
best out of all her novels.’
*Ramiro Sanchiz, literary critic, translator, and author of
Trashpunk*
‘A fascinating, astutely written novel. Pink Slime is both a
successful portrait of societal gluttony and a bold exploration of
the ambiguities of care.’
*Literary Review*
‘Latin American fantastika is in the midst of a remarkable
renaissance … The latest of this string of exhilarating new books
to find its way into English is Uruguayan novelist Fernanda Trias’s
Pink Slime … Ecological collapse generates moments of startling
beauty that are hauntingly captured by Heather Cleary’s elegant
translation.’
*The Saturday Paper*
‘[A]n extremely powerful metaphor of an emotional world in crisis
where everything is about to collapse, held together by the weak
threads of memory, tenderness, solidarity, and the effort to make
it to a place where life is different. The language is charged with
poetic breath but never loses its tie to the concrete, wisely
leaning on the details. Reading this novel is both stimulating and
disturbing, and after closing it, its images will continue chasing
us for a long time, charged with beauty and melancholy. Truly
extraordinary.’
*Piedad Bonnett, poet, dramaturg, novelist, and memoirist*
‘Trías’s gaze … —her quiet and disquieting writing, poetic and
precise — creates cracks and escapes all over the place: in the
hearts of her creatures, in their relationships, in the damaged
world.’
*Giuseppe Caputo, author of An Orphan World*
‘No one writes like Fernanda Trías. Reading her is like watching a
revelation or an undressing. That revelation starts gradually and
irresistibly, phrase by phrase, until you realise that you are the
one being undressed.’
*Daniel Mella, author of Older Brother*
‘Time in the haunting, elegiac Pink Slime loops in and around
itself. Reading it is like constantly being assailed by a sense of
déjà vu; passages are repeated, events of the past are re-examined
from different angles. The narrator and, by extension, Trías are
fixated on ways of measuring time — what marks the beginning,
middle and end of the world, of a narrative? … Pink Slime is a
potent allegory of climate change. As the narrator tells us at the
end: “I cannot stop a future that has already happened”.’
*Kill Your Darlings*
‘[A]n agonisingly beautiful read.’
*Mascara Literary Review*
‘An intimate, melancholic look at an ecologically ravaged
future.’
*Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic and
Silver Nitrate*
‘In spite of the grim scenario in Pink Slime, there is much beauty
in the words of Fernanda Trias’s narrator and in her sensitive,
questioning nature … Pink Slime is a remarkable book, and Heather
Cleary’s translation does full justice to the poetic prose which
conveys the resilience, love and hope of the narrator: something,
surely, that we all need in this ever-changing world.’
*The Newtown Review of Books*
‘The novel captivates … Readers will be gripped.’
*Publishers Weekly, starred review*
‘Pink Slime is a dystopia all too near to us, in which human
connections and sadness over the end matter more than any
explanation of the fog and disease that shroud everything. Trías’s
writing, precise and poetic, turns this beautiful novel into a
toxic dream, into a meditation on ruins, bodies, and solitude.’
*Mariana Enríquez, author of Our Share of Night*
‘Like a faintly distorting mirror, Pink Slime reflects back to us
the image of a dying world. In this country, abandoned by God and
government, the only consolation is the compassion and silent
heroism of a few human beings. With her meticulous prose and the
painful lucidity characteristic of her work, Fernanda Trías
immerses us in a dystopia that expands around us like a poisonous
perfume.’
*Guadalupe Nettel, author of Still Born, shortlisted for
the 2023 Booker Prize*
‘Like a nightmare, like an omen, like the lines of an exquisite
poem, Pink Slime echoes in my memory long after I read it. A book
has never been so relevant, necessary, painful, and simply
splendid.’
*Jazmina Barrera, author of Cross-Stitch*
‘This is a stunningly dark novel, but a beautiful one; Trías’ prose
and Cleary’s translation perfectly capture what it feels like to
live in an epidemic … This is a knockout of a story. Stunning
writing makes this a startlingly powerful novel.’
*Kirkus Reviews*
‘A compelling tale with an unhurried pace that is striking for how
it juxtaposes lyricism with banality … With her eerie and
unnervingly probable plot, strong narrative voice, and focus on the
small, beautiful moments of life amid disaster, Trías’s tale will
continue to haunt readers long after they turn the final page. Pair
it with other thoughtful and subtle horror stories such as Sealed
by Naomi Booth or Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin.’
*Library Journal, starred review*
‘Uruguayan author Trías presents a bleak dystopian novel narrated
by an unnamed woman living in an unnamed South American city near
the coast … Despair, arbitrariness, and resignation shape this
unnerving tale about facing environmental destruction.’
*Booklist*
‘A genuinely unsettling example of eco/body horror that’s also a
commentary on motherhood … A beautiful elegiac meditation on
parenting — in this case, the deep connection between a mother and
son.’
*Locus Magazine*
Praise for The Rooftop: ‘At its core, it’s a story about being
trapped and the fear, isolation, and anxiety that emerge when one
is stuck in a dark, dark place. A tiny, shocking book about despair
and its haunting consequences.’
*Kirkus Reviews*
Praise for The Rooftop: ‘Trías deftly turns her brief fiction into
universal parable.’
*Shelf Awareness*
Praise for The Rooftop: ‘A chilling tour-de-force by one of the
most exciting and subversive voices writing today in Latin
America.’
*Morning Star*
‘Evocative, dreamlike, and immersive, Pink Slime is unnervingly
effective at depicting the class-divided reaction to disaster, the
claustrophobia of a stilled city, and the way things might change,
and change some more, and slowly become unlivable. The
disconcerting familiarity of this strange, windswept world will
haunt you.’
*Esquire*
‘Brief and beautifully written … Somber and political, Trías paints
a grim but fascinating portrait of a woman who must endure an
unthinkable reality.’
*Variety*
‘Effortlessly atmospheric … Trías here does a powerful job of
capturing the faintly sweet stagnation of sentimentality and
nostalgia that affects — and limits — us all.’
*Rector Magazine*
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