Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories - Paperback

by Agustina Bazterrica (Author), Sarah Moses (Translator)

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.

Author Biography

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.

Sarah Moses is a Canadian writer and translator of French and Spanish. She has translated work by Latin American authors, including Tomás Downey and Ariana Harwicz, whose novel Die, My Love was longlisted for the International Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Premio Valle Inclán, and the Best Translated Book Award. The Unworthy is the third of Agustina Bazterrica's books she has translated into English. She is also the author of a collection of short fiction, Strange Water.