La condición animal

It is impossible to immerse oneself in the twelve stories that make up The Animal Condition and emerge from them unshaken. At the very least, one comes out disturbed, unsettled, and—why not say it—also deeply moved by the intensity of these narratives. What is it that makes us different as a species? What defines the human condition? Is it our awareness of fragility, exposure, mortality? What would we be like if we didn’t fear the harm others might do to us? These are the questions that seem to echo through each of the stories Valeria Correa Fiz has written in a visceral, physical prose, thick with shadow, leading us straight into our own fears, our insecurities, our trembling. The darkest angles of human nature—madness and death, love and illness, obsession and violence, and the tenderness we cannot escape. A brutal book. A book that hurts—like all great literature does. Rarely do we encounter a debut as dazzling as this first book by Valeria Correa Fiz: a bold, serious, and captivating work that overflows with quality and, above all, promise.