Pink Slime: A Novel
Longlisted for the 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD for Translated Literature - "Evocative, dreamlike, and immersive...The disconcerting familiarity of this strange, windswept world will haunt you." --Esquire A harrowing, intimate novel about a woman and the people who depend on her as the world around them teeters on the edge--marking an award-winning Latin American author's US debut. In a city ravaged by a mysterious plague, a woman tries to understand why her world is falling apart. An algae bloom has poisoned the previously pristine air that blows in from the sea. Inland, a secretive corporation churns out the only food anyone can afford--a revolting pink paste, made of an unknown substance. In the short, desperate breaks between deadly windstorms, our narrator stubbornly tends to her few remaining relationships: with her difficult but vulnerable mother; with the ex-husband for whom she still harbors feelings; with the boy she nannies, whose parents sent him away even as terrible threats loomed. Yet as conditions outside deteriorate further, her commitment to remaining in place only grows--even if staying means being left behind. An evocative elegy for a safe, clean world, Pink Slime is buoyed by humor and its narrator's resiliency. This vivid and unforgettable novel explores the place where love, responsibility, and self-preservation converge.
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Community Reviews
This is a haunting novel about a society on the brink of apocalyptic collapse, faced with erratic threats from an environmental disaster no one quite understands, but could realistically happen to us at any time. It's interlaced with themes of relationship strain and challenges the idea that under such a threat, we are actually in a worse situation than before, given shallow interactions and existential threats we create for ourselves when we're not under actual threat. I can best describe it as heavy and somber, like trudging through a bout of depression. There are few highs and lows, just a constant impending sense of doom. By the time the narrator begins the story, it feels as if she is already numb to the emotions of human connection and is solely focused on daily survival.
As a reader, we have to ask ourselves if this is the same reaction we'd have when faced with a slow-moving catastrophe. Essentially, we're left with lots of prompts for self-reflection. It's definitely worth the read, but prepare to be in a state of melancholy the entire time. In fact, reading this book is a prime example of how we might create our own existential threats while existing in relative comfort. This is the type of story that follows you long after you put it down.
Disclaimer: I work for the publisher of this title, Simon & Schuster. All opinions are my own.
As a reader, we have to ask ourselves if this is the same reaction we'd have when faced with a slow-moving catastrophe. Essentially, we're left with lots of prompts for self-reflection. It's definitely worth the read, but prepare to be in a state of melancholy the entire time. In fact, reading this book is a prime example of how we might create our own existential threats while existing in relative comfort. This is the type of story that follows you long after you put it down.
Disclaimer: I work for the publisher of this title, Simon & Schuster. All opinions are my own.
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