Description
A breakout, genre-blurring novel from one of the most exciting new voices of Latin America's feminist gothic.
Across two different time periods, two women confront fear, loneliness, mortality, and a haunting yearning that will not let them rest. In the nineteenth century, a vampire arrives from Europe to the coast of Buenos Aires, on the run from the Church. She must adapt, intermingle with humans, and, most importantly, be discreet.
In present-day Buenos Aires, a woman finds herself at an impasse as she grapples with her mother's terminal illness and her own relationship with motherhood. When she first encounters the vampire in a cemetery, something ignites within the two women - and they cross a threshold from which there's no turning back.
Thirst plays with the boundaries of genre while exploring the limits of female agency, the consuming power of desire, and the fragile vitality of even the most immortal of creatures.
About the Author
Marina Yuszczuk was born in Argentina in 1978. She is a writer and founding editor of Rosa Iceberg, a press focused on publishing writing by women. She is the author of multiple books of poetry, short-story collections, and novels. 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.
Reviews
'It takes courage to write about vampires: they are the greatest of monsters, but also the most trivialised. Marina Yuszczuk manages to bring hers to life in this intimate take on the genre, which also weaves together grief, the history of Buenos Aires, and the voracity of desire.'
-- Mariana Enriquez, author of Our Share of Night'This gripping tale is full of queer representation and lush, lyrical passages, all while exploring death with an air of nihilism ... Vampires are making a comeback, and Yuszczuk is spearheading their revival with this bloody novel.'
* The New York Times *'Yuszcuk allows her vampire to resonate with the brutal world of colonial Argentina, though ultimately the author is more interested in gender and vampirism's traditional association with female sexuality ... Thirst, intelligently and stylishly written - as per the translation by Heather Cleary - is definitely one of the superior reincarnations of the vampire story.'
-- Maria Takolander * The Saturday Paper *'Two women walk the streets of Buenos Aires two centuries apart. They are connected by exile and blood: the exile of a vampire who fled Europe like so many others, and the exile of a woman on the brink of orphanhood; the blood of kinship and the blood of death. Marina Yuszczuk masterfully blends past and present, the intimate and the historical, and the literary traditions that have shaped Argentine literature into what it is today to create a sensual and deeply personal novel.'
-- Fernanda Trias, author of Pink Slime'Sex and violence take centre stage in this gothic tale as the horrors that Buenos Aires and Yuszczuk's characters face continue to slowly unfurl. The novel takes its time, building gradually to the electric moment when the two women finally meet ... What truly shines are the author's knowledge of vampire lore and her dedication to creating a monster who could easily join the ranks of Dracula and Nosferatu. A blood-soaked tale of sex, love, and ennui that would make Anne Rice proud.'
* Kirkus Reviews *'Yuszczuk draws on a wide range of source texts. Her vampire is variously a Gothic seductress who calls to mind Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla; the kind of tortured soul familiar to readers of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire; a vigilante in sunglasses reminiscent of Blade; and an almost moral monster who bemoans her own violent existence in the mode of the creature in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.'
-- Eleanor Spencer-Regan * Australian Book Review *'Thirst cleverly pulls you in with its melancholy prose and its setting and its haunting mood and before you know it you've read the whole thing while chewing on your hair. An evocative tale that both recalls and subverts the classic gothic vampire novel. What a mesmerising read.'
-- Virginia Feito, author of Mrs March'There is the powerful beat of a gothic heart in this gripping, dark, and sensual novel. Intimate and piercing, it manages to dissect maternal love while examining the nature of desire. A captivating and thrilling read.'
-- Lucie McKnight Hardy, author of Dead Relatives'Mesmerisingly translated by Cleary, Yuszczuk's prose is meticulous, vibrant, propulsive, and masterfully paced. Her characterisations will stir readers' emotions, empathy in particular; we suffer characters' longing, their mournful feelings of being locked into inescapable circumstances. Thirst is an intense, haunting, and captivating novel that draws readers in from beginning to end.'
-- Lillian Dabney * Booklist *'If we're in the midst of a vampire renaissance, Marina Yuszczuk's bloody, seductive contribution arrives with fangs bared. Dark as a bat's wing, Thirst feels like Carmen Maria Machado meets Anne Rice, with a backdrop of Buenos Aires. Absolutely exquisite.'
-- Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller'This is an excellent novel. Yuszczuk is masterful at using the monstrous and the immortal to shed light on ordinary human things.'
-- Marina Scholtz * Literary Review *'Marina Yuszczuk is a literary force, I'm obsessed and she's going straight into my auto-buy authors list. This is one of those novels that I can definitely see myself re-reading in the future and highlighting all my favourite quotes and passages. I absorbed this novel in two days and it's one of my favourite things I've read this year.'
-- Jamie Lee * Waterstones Trafford Centre *'Thirst is unlike anything I've read before. The narrative is so gripping and immersive, and the characters jump off the page, they feel so real!'
-- Chloe Michelle Howarth, author of Sunburn'It is *everything* I was craving at the moment since I've been desperate for a literary horror to get me ready for autumn.'
-- @bookenders'Pensive and erotic ... I was entranced by Yuszczuk's writing, which captures a century of national transformation within its deeply personal, emotive narrative and delivers a thrilling interpretation of gothic tropes.'
-- Joe Murray * Readings *'Marina Yuszczuk's blending of traditional vampiric imagery with the Buenos Aires setting was masterful and you really got a sense of the vampire story as a global story, which is unfortunately rare.'
-- Natalie Wall * Ginger Nuts of Horror *Book Information
ISBN 9781914484650
Author Marina Yuszczuk
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Scribe Publications
Publisher Scribe Publications
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 19mm
