Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird

Stories

Translated by Sarah Moses

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About The Book

An NPR Best Book of 2023

A collection of twenty dark, wildly imaginative short stories from the author of the award-winning TikTok sensation Tender Is the Flesh.

From celebrated author Agustina Bazterrica, this collection of twenty brutal, darkly funny short stories takes into our deepest fears and through our most disturbing fantasies. Through stories about violence, alienation, and dystopia, Bazterrica’s vision of the human experience emerges in complex, unexpected ways—often unsettling, sometimes thrilling, and always profound. In “Roberto,” a girl claims to have a rabbit between her legs. A woman’s neighbor jumps to his death in “A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound,” and in “Candy Pink,” a woman fails to contend with a difficult breakup in five easy steps.

Written in Bazterrica’s signature clever, vivid style, these stories question love, friendship, family relationships, and unspeakable desires.

About The Author

Photograph by Lina Botero
Agustina Bazterrica

Agustina Bazterrica was born in Buenos Aires in 1974. She has a degree in art from the University of Buenos Aires, works as a cultural administrator, and has served on the jury for literary competitions such as the Premio Fondo Nacional de las Artes. She writes essays and fiction and has published one short story collection and three novels, including Tender Is the Flesh, which won the Clarín Novel Prize, was a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards, and was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post and Vogue. Tender Is the Flesh also became a worldwide bestseller, with more than 600,000 copies sold in the United States alone. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages and has sold over one million copies worldwide.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Scribner (June 20, 2023)
  • Length: 176 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781668012673

Raves and Reviews

A USA Today Bestseller
One of Book Riot's Best Horror Books of 2023


“Fresh and unnerving."
—New York Times Book Review

“Provocative… Vivid and bizarre, this will entrance.”
—Publishers Weekly

"Dark, funny, weird, unique...the novel Tender is the Flesh placed Bazterrica on a lot of people’s radar and made her a popular author in the United States, but the variety, originality, and strength of this collection cement her as one of the most exciting contemporary voices in speculative fiction."
—Locus Magazine
 

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