Comemadre

Written by Roque Larraquy

Narrated by Rick Perez

On the outskirts of Buenos Aires in 1907, Doctor Quintana pines for head nurse Menéndez while he and his colleagues embark on a grisly series of experiments to investigate the line between life and death. One hundred years later, a celebrated artist goes to extremes in search of aesthetic transformation, turning himself into an art object. How far are we willing to go, Larraquy asks, in pursuit of transcendence? The world of Comemadre is full of vulgarity, excess, and farce: strange ants that form almost perfect circles, missing body parts, obsessive love affairs, and flesh-eating plants. Here the monstrous is not alien, but the consequence of our relentless pursuit of collective and personal progress.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Everand Productions
• Release date: May 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094416571

Roque Larraquy

Roque Larraquy is an Argentinian writer, screenwriter, professor of narrative and audiovisual design, and the author of two books, La comemadre and Informe sobre ectoplasma animal. Comemadre will be his first book published in English. Heather Cleary’s translations include César Rendueles’s Sociophobia, Sergio Chejfec’s The Planets and The Dark, and a selection of Oliverio Girondo’s poetry for New Directions.

Reviews for Comemadre

[Christopher Hegan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Weird and unsettling. A brilliant imagination loops the loop through the bizarre. Fans of performance art will love it.

[Rick Perez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Rick Perez brought this edgy and dark story to life.

[over.the.edge · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Comemadre by Roque Larraquy 2010 / 2018 Coffee House Press, Minneapolis 5 / 5Oh My God! This is one of he sickest, creepiest and absurd stories I have ever read. Its dark and funny and I loved it! This is a short story and a novella, set 100 years apart but are connected. Set in Argentina in a sanitarium in 1907, where they are doing experiments using cancer patients....one of the bizarre and macabre stories that just gets more extreme as you read. This story of image, identity, medical testing and deformities takes a look at the field of psychiatry through the back door. Excellent. Unforgettable and not for the faint of heart.