Spilling blood will continue to be their way of life
Edgar Wilson is an honest and compassionate man, but with a natural gift for spilling blood. After being the victim of an explosion in the mine where he worked, the only job he can aspire to is in the meat industry, which dominates the country. Now, he has been working for two years in Don Milo’s slaughterhouse as a stunner: he is the one who delivers the blow to the cows before they are slaughtered.
Edgar’s monotonous routine changes when one cow repeatedly crashes against the wall, killing itself, another drowns in the lake, and more follow. Both he and Bronco Gil, the foreman, will try to find out why the animals are behaving so anomalously.
Their suspicions turn overnight into panic when they find more than twenty of their cows dead at the bottom of a cliff. Suspicion degenerates into terror, as an idea begins to germinate in their minds: what if the cows are not sick? What if they are fleeing from something trying to hunt them down?
A chilling story about the slippery slope of justifying violence and the damned men who perpetrate it.
RELEVANT DATA: Of Cattle and Men is a powerful book that reflects on how humans have become predators. Winner of the Cercador Prize in 2023, PEN Translates Award 2023, and part of the longlist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2024 in the UK and Ireland. Named by The Guardian and Foyles as one of the best books translated into English in 2023.
Ana Paula Maia is a Brazilian writer, screenwriter, and musician.
What the critics have said:
“She is considered one of the unavoidable voices of new Brazilian literature.” – Clarín
“Of Cattle and Men is an excellent book that raises many dark and silent questions. What does death mean to men who work in a slaughterhouse?” –J.R. Patterson, World Literature Today
“Having recently been captivated by the darkly delightful Exquisite Corpse by Agustina Bazterrica, this novel also acts as an indictment of the meat industry, where the line between human and animal becomes alarmingly blurred.”
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Movie.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, Dutch, Italian, Serbian.
