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Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia tr. Zoë Perry (Charco)

This one sounds very promising, from Wendy's review it also appears that the arguments/perspective overlaps with aspects of Coetzee's The Lives of Animals. I look forward to hearing more about it, but like many people who don't eat meat I'm already more familiar than I'd like to be about what goes on in slaughter houses.

It wasn’t so much about what goes on in a slaughter house, although I think for you there is more than you want to read, it’s more about the philosophy and the ethics of killing or reaping the benefits of someone else killing. I think this book raises important issues and I wish all meat eaters would read it. Not to feel guilty, although I have my thoughts about it, but, at minimum, to be aware of the costs in suffering: fear, pain, grief, psychological fall-out, and death that has been paid by others so one can eat that perfectly medium rare steak.

If I could deduct passages in the book and send it to you I would, Alwynn!

Thanks Wendy! I think a lot of people just really don't care, as long as they get what they want. Exploitation of the other is kind of fundamental to Western capitalism/consumerism.

This one is I think very impressive. It's already won the Cercador Prize in the US, and I think it has a good chance of winning this prize as well. A brutal portrayal of a world where life, including human life, is cheap, with the deeply religious main character approaching his work as a form of sacrifice of his own fate:

There is no one to stop him, as men like him, slaughterers, are few and far between. Those who eat are many, and they are never satiated. They are all men of blood, those who kill and those who eat. No one goes unpunished.

Não há ninguém que o impeça, pois homens como ele são poucos, que são homens para matar. Os que comem são muitos e comem de modo que nunca se fartam. São todos homens de sangue, os que matam e os que comem. Ninguém está impune.

We discussed this is the NLF group already, but Edgar still makes no sense to me re: his religious pov in which casual murder of people does not damn his soul but killing cows for food does.

Because he sees himself as punishing those who share his crime against the animals. Cf the quote.

Finally got round to this one this week, and found it very powerful. Could see it winning.

We cannot let this thread pass without a nod to Emily’s brilliant idea of christening this as a new genre - AbbotNoir.

I agree with Paul, Edgar saw killing as ontological evil, it’s part of life, but there is a difference between killing the innocent, even for the benefit of others, and killing as a way to protect others. The man he killed was cruel simply because he could be cruel to powerless creatures and Edgar felt it was his duty to rid the world of that man.

Alwynne, I saw a chart with sections intersecting and all the evils in the world interest with Capitalism.

I think you may be overestimating Edgar’s morality

From what we know of his upbringing �


“A fighting dog is a dog that has no choice. He learned what his owner chose to teach him ever since he was a puppy. He's recognizable by his short or amputated ears, scars, stitches, and lacerations. He's had no choices in life. That's exactly how it's been for Edgar Wilson who was trained at a young age to kill rabbits and frogs�

And what happens In his next job after this one (when he finally gets to world with pigs)

Edgar murders first a fellow worker who he thinks is having an affair with his girlfriend, and then his girlfriend when she is clearly pining for her missing lover; agrees to stage a fake kidnap of an acquaintance � to test the fidelity of their girlfriend � but rather over stages it and then abandons the body after the car in which he has stashed his “victim� is accidentally rear-ended by a truck; leaves a woman dying in a car crash as he is more interested in finding his missing pigs; watches a friend dying of cancer commit suicide; sees his favourite dog mauled and killed in a dog fight; and, most transgressively, agrees to visit the cancer stricken sister of his co-worker and friend to whom the latter had donated a kidney which he now needs, and assists to cut out her kidney and leave her to be devoured by her own chihuahua, only for a relative to fry the liberated kidney for dinner before they can work out a way to transplant it

But other than that, he's a really nice guy.

I’m not saying Edgar is a moral person, I think that was his personal moral code. Which begs the question what is a moral person? One who abides by the laws and ethics of his society or one who follows his own firmly held beliefs? In order to be morally responsible for one’s actions one has to have acted with knowledge and freedom. Did Edgar know better? I think so. Was he free not to do what he did? I think so.

What I like about this one is the extreme simplicity, but it provokes so many debates and misunderstandings (in all the groups I've seen discuss it).

Catching up on all your RoC posts... seems like this is the shortlist I should be following this year!

It's definitely the place for quality translated fiction rather than another lesser prize.

There is an online discussion with author and translator on 15th May at 7pm UK time organised by the Portuguese in Translation online bookclub.

Invites are free via this link

I read this in a few hours this morning while sitting in the airport between flights. It really enjoyed it.

I'm reading an ARC of a new Bazterrica and suddenly I got confused about whether it was Tender Is the Flesh or Of Cattle and Men that won this year. A very logical train of associations there.

Bazterrica is published by Scribner, sadly.

Pushkin Press in the UK, but still too big I believe.

Yes Pushkin are too big for RofC.

That makes sense. It also means the new Lambert/Winkler won’t be eligible for the UK/I RoC but will be eligible in North America. Pushkin has it in the UK and Biblioasis has it here.

I have to check what happened with my preorder of the Lambert. Biblioasis edition suddenly got pushed to spring 2025 on Blackwells but as far as I can see it's out. And I need it as soon as possible, Lambert's the best.

Yeah I’m confused about that, it’s definitely out in the US and was available for purchase in the Biblioasis bookshop as early as mid-August. Wonder what’s causing the delay in shipments across the pond. I hope it gets to you sooner than spring 2025! I really loved it.

How are you finding the new Bazterrica? I’m wondering if my interest in her first book was a fluke, or rather, whether it was just the message of that one (and Of Cattle & Men) that grabbed me because I didn’t get along with her story collection nor this latest.

That's just bizarre. And also a sign that I can expect my copy to arrive sometime in early summer, as I usually get my books after a month of Blackwell's shipping it because of the slow post office service over here. Urgh.

Anyhow, I just finished the new Bazterrica and it's as relentless as the first one though with a more cumulative effect. Only in the last third did I start to feel and comprehend the full extent of post-apocalyptic horror. I perhaps liked the new one a bit less, as the topics of Tender Is the Flesh are somewhat closer to my interests. Not cannibalism, academic ones regarding human-animal divide. :)