Tender Is the Flesh
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
Description via The StoryGraph:
Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans--though no one calls them that anymore.
His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the "Transition." Now, eating human meat--"special meat"--is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.
Then one day he's given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he's aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost--and what might still be saved.
Read from August 24th through 26th of 2025
“There's a vibration, a subtle and fragile heat, that makes a living being particularily delicious. You're extracting life by the mouthful. It's the pleasure of knowing that because of your intent, your actions, this being has ceased to exist. It's the feeling of a complex and precious organism expitring little by little, and also becoming part of you. For always, I fine this miracle fascinating. This possibility of an indissoluble union.”
