Across two different time periods, two women confront fear, loneliness, mortality, and a haunting yearning that will not let them rest. A breakout, genre-blurring novel from one of the most exciting new voices of Latin America's feminist Gothic.

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.

With echoes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and written in the vein of feminist Gothic writers like Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maurier, and Carmen Maria Machado, 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. She has a PhD in literature from Universidad Nacional de la Plata and is a film critic for one of Argentina's top newspapers. 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 *

'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

'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 *



Book Information
ISBN 9781914484643
Author Marina Yuszczuk
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Scribe Publications
Publisher Scribe Publications