Pink Slime: A Novel

Longlisted for the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD for Translated Literature * Named a BEST BOOK of the Year by NPR, Esquire, Publishers Weekly, and ScreenRant * "The disconcerting familiarity of this strange, windswept world will haunt you." -Esquire

A hair-raising, poetic work of literary horror and climate fiction about a woman and the people who depend on her as the world around them edges toward apocalypse.

In a city ravaged by a mysterious plague, a woman tries to understand why her world is falling apart. An algae bloom has poisoned the previously pristine air that blows in from the sea. Inland, a secretive corporation churns out the only food anyone can afford-a revolting pink paste, made of an unknown substance. In the short, desperate breaks between deadly windstorms, our narrator stubbornly tends to her few remaining relationships: with her difficult but vulnerable mother; with the ex-husband for whom she still harbors feelings; with the boy she nannies, whose parents sent him away even as terrible threats loomed. Yet as conditions outside deteriorate further, her commitment to remaining in place only grows-even if staying means being left behind.

An evocative elegy for a safe, clean world, Pink Slime is buoyed by humor and its narrator's resiliency. This vivid and unforgettable translated novel explores the place where love, responsibility, and self-preservation converge.