Bloat

Bloat

by Raquel Abend

£12.99

Pre-order for delivery on publication (2nd February 2027) or subscribe to receive it early.

“My fellow Venezuelans, we’re going to swim in black gold. Remember this year: 1999. We’re not just reclaiming our spring, our Thames, our Seine. We’re reclaiming our country.”

Mercedita lives with her mother and grandmother, reeling from the recent death of her father and the intrusion of investigators into their home. Across the street is Merced, a sex worker entangled with an oil executive, soon to have a baby. Not far away, Mercedes – known to all as Mamé – runs La Tasca, a once thriving bar, now grave-quiet as the boom times come to an end. Mercy, who works at a restaurant frequented by the powerful, is sent home after coughing up blood.

These four women are connected by the alternate Caracas they inhabit, by their female bodies, by their strength in the face of the fear and violence which shadows them – and by the oil around which the life of the city and country revolves, even as the fields dry up and the executives implement a new and unsettling system of production. In visceral and absorbing prose, Bloat explores exploitation, beauty and power, conjuring up a world that is not quite ours, but is hauntingly familiar.

Translated from Spanish by Lizzie Davis

Paperback with flaps, £12.99
ISBN: 978-1-916806-32-0
Publication date: 2 February 2027

Press & Reviews

'Bloat is daringly imaginative and impeccably written. Raquel Abend employs narrative tools with the care of a poet, poses questions about the ways extractive, totalitarian regimes crush the human spirit, and commends how women build community despite all odds. Abend is a rising star.' — Cristina Rivera Garza

'Bloat is a bold and hauntingly original novel with a dystopian premise that is all too frighteningly plausible. It casts an unblinking eye on the ways oppressive societies consume their citizens, while also movingly exploring how life endures even under the bleakest circumstances. It will stay with me for a long time.' — Daniel Loedel

'Imagine Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower with the plot attenuated and written in four parts that glance off one another but, like an exquisite corpse, still connect to form a larger, troubling image. Bloat is a delirious and compelling book about women trapped in an oil-soaked dystopia where, if you’re not struggling to make ends meet, you’re either a criminal or already dead.' — Brian Evenson

About The Book

Author

Raquel Abend was born in Caracas, Venezuela. She holds a PhD in creative writing in Spanish and art history from the University of Houston. She is the author of two novels, a short story collection and three poetry collections. Bloat is her debut publication in English. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Translator

Lizzie Davis has translated over a dozen books, including novels by Juan Cárdenas, Elena Medel, Daniela Tarazona and Pilar Fraile. She is the executive editor at Transit Books, after nearly a decade at Coffee House Press. She lives in Berkeley, California.

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