The BookBrowse Review

Published July 31, 2024

ISSN: 1930-0018

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Contents

In This Edition of
The BookBrowse Review

Highlighting indicates debut books

Editor's Introduction
Reviews
Hardcovers Paperbacks
First Impressions
Latest Author Interviews
Recommended for Book Clubs
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Literary Fiction


Historical Fiction


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Essays


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True Crime


Travel & Adventure


Other


Young Adults

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Romance


Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History


Graphic Novels


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Extras
  • Blog:
    The New York Times Best 100 Books of the 21st Century: How Does BookBrowse's Coverage Compare?
  • Wordplay:
    It's R C A D
  • Book Giveaway:
    Smothermoss by Alisa Alering
Book Jacket

Pink Slime
by Fernanda Trías
10 Aug 2023
211 pages
Publisher: Scribner
Genre: Other
Peperback Original
Critics:

Winner of the Uruguayan National Literature Prize for Fiction, the Bartolomé-Hidalgo Fiction Prize, and the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Literature Prize.

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 unforgettable novel explores the place where love, responsibility, and self-preservation converge, and the beauty and fragility of our most intimate relationships.

"The novel captivates with its increasingly claustrophobic atmosphere, and Trías keenly explores the resentments that fester within a mother-daughter relationship, a failing marriage, and childcare work. Readers will be gripped." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This is a knockout of a story. Stunning writing makes this a startlingly powerful novel." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"With her eerie and unnervingly probable plot, strong narrative voice, and focus on the small, beautiful moments of life amid disaster, Trías's tale will continue to haunt readers long after they turn the final page. Pair it with other thoughtful and subtle horror stories such as Sealed by Naomi Booth or Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin." —Library Journal (starred review)

"Powerful and beautifully written." —The Guardian

"The novel captivates with its increasingly claustrophobic atmosphere, and Trías keenly explores the resentments that fester within a mother-daughter relationship, a failing marriage, and childcare work. Readers will be gripped." —Publishers Weekly

"An intimate, melancholic look at an ecologically ravaged future." —Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic and Silver Nitrate

Fernanda Trías is a Uruguayan writer. She was born in Montevideo in 1976. She is the author of three novels and two short story collections. In 2004 she won a Unesco scholarship to write in Camac, an artists' residence in Marnay-sur-Seine.

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