Description
Description
A cyberpunk fever-dream of climate catastrophe: the full-length fiction debut from one of the boldest new voices in Argentinian literature, thrillingly translated by Rahul Bery. After the last Antarctic icecaps melt, calamity follows. Landscapes are radically transformed, diseases mutate and spread with unprecedented speed, and, in response, forms the ghastly "virofinance" exchange--a market for corporations to profit from pandemics and global suffering. It's in this grim near-future of 2272, where words such as "winter" and "cold" have no meaning, the Dengue Child grows. The monstrous humanoid mosquito emerges in newly tropical Argentina, carrying its namesake virus and despairing of its own existence. Bullies brutalize the child until a violent eruption of revelation and transformation takes place, shockwaves of which will extend far beyond the schoolyard into a society full of terrors and wonders enabled and exposed by climate collapse. Powerful telepathic stones from the bowels of the earth, sought after by smugglers, seem to hold a volatile, primordial wisdom. The meager remaining glaciers are harvested for skating rinks on luxury cruises. And the youth obsess over an immersive, addictive video game that presents a virtual world far more attractive than reality. In the tradition of Kafka, Cronenberg, and Philip K. Dick, Michel Nieva's brilliant, hilarious, and demented Dengue Boy draws on manga, body horror, and gaucho-punk science fiction to tell a delirious, frenetic, singular story about the ravages of capitalism and what hope might exist, if any, for revenge and rebirth.
About the Author
About the Author
Michel Nieva was born in 1988 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In his native Spanish he has published several novels, poetry collections and essays. His prose mixes science fiction and speculative genres with Argentinean historical and literary traditions, a blend dubbed gaucho-punk. In 2021 Nieva was named among the best young Spanish writers by Granta magazine. His short story Dengue Boy (basis for the novel with the same title), won the O. Henry Award in 2022. Michel lives in New York and teaches Latin American literature at NYU. TRANSLATOR BIO: Rahul Bery translates from Spanish & Portuguese to English, and is based in Cardiff. He has translated books by David Trueba, Afonso Cruz, Simone Campos and Vicente Luis Mora and his translations have also appeared in Granta, the TLS, the Stinging Fly, Words Without Borders, Freeman's, the White Review and elsewhere. His most recent translation is What is Mine by José Henrique Bortoluci, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions. His translation of David Trueba's Rolling Fields was shortlisted for the 2021 TA First Translation Prize.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"I can't remember the last book that pushed science fiction's potential for weirdness as far as Dengue Boy. Nieva's writing is consistently revolting -- he goes too far, then keeps going. But his long sentences, which flutter and swirl like a mosquito in flight, prove irresistible."
--Charlie Jane Anders, Washington Post "The book is classic dystopian pulp: global warming, pandemics, radioactive mutation; rich people surviving in climate-controlled enclaves; poor people living short, wretched lives. But it's also a wildly original anti-capitalist satire . . . It's all delightfully whimsical and absurd, but the core drama--capitalism's discontents coming home to roost--couldn't be more realistic."
--Max Pearl, The Guardian "A brilliantly strange new novel . . . [Dengue Boy] is a grimace that turns into a grin . . . It is weirdness sliced up, spun in a salad spinner, and served with some indescribable gunk on top. It's delicious, if you can stomach it."
--Matt Reynolds, WIRED "[Dengue Boy] is a demented fever dream, bilious, splenetic, awash with spilled bodily fluids and shot through with the blackest of humour . . . [Nieva splices] Ballard, Borges and Lovecraft to create an almost unclassifiable piece of work that's both utterly engrossing and unrepentantly gross-out."
--James Lovegrove, Financial Times "[A] psychedelic fever dream."
--Adam Morgan, Esquire "As you might expect from a novel whose central character is a giant human-mosquito hybrid, 'stylized' doesn't quite do justice to how offbeat Dengue Boy can get . . . It's frequently a dizzying read, true, but there's plenty of righteous anger at this novel's core--and a haunting sadness that runs throughout."
--Tobias Carroll, Reactor "Michel Nieva's Dengue Boy is a wild book, surprising on every page; insightful, funny and grotesque. A unique hybrid of body horror, absurdist satire and dystopian science fiction, this novel critiques capitalism and colonialism with an entrancing humorous tone and a gruesome plot."
--Venezia Paloma, The Skinny "Freaky, bizarr-o, and oftentimes disgusting . . . Dengue Boy is hilarious, surreal, incredibly ambitious, but not so serious enough to refrain from a good sex joke . . . I haven't read anything like it--Nieva's kind of freaky is the one the literary world desperately needs."
--Sam Franzini, Pizza Bagel Press "[Dengue Boy is] brutal and shocking, but those who buckle up are in for a wild and visceral ride."
--Nathalie Atkinson, Everything Zoomer ★ "Delightfully gonzo and hilariously surreal, this novel turns nightmarish visions into vital art. It's a sui generis showstopper."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review ★ "A dystopian fever dream that's equal parts poetic and profane, beautiful and splattered with gore."
--John Keogh, Booklist, starred review "Nieva's English-language debut boils both into a hallucinogenic cocktail about the end of one world and the beginnings of another . . . [Dengue Boy is] a hyperkinetic, audacious grotesquerie about metamorphosis and the inevitability of change."
--Kirkus Reviews
"An incredibly exciting new voice in speculative fiction . . . Dengue Boy is a striking reminder of the power of genre fiction to speak truth to power and to vividly reveal the uncomfortable inequalities our society is built on. It mixes plausible biological and technological speculation with cutting satire and imaginatively surreal imagery. Nieva has created a modern masterpiece, and established himself as a key new voice in speculative fiction."
--Jonathan Thornton, The Fantasy Hive "Michel Nieva has placed a strong bet with this steampunk novel that imagines the disappearance of the south of Latin America between gaucho literature, violent videogames and monetized diseases. Intelligent, entertaining and brutal."
--Mariana Enriquez, author of A Sunny Place for Shady People "An incandescent imagination that illuminates the strangeness of everything around us with just the right amounts of unease and tenderness."
--Valeria Luiselli, author of Lost Children Archive "Do not lick this book! Dengue Boy is a psychedelic literary funhouse like no other, its richly imagined narrative mutating and reconfiguring chapter by chapter like the Dengue Boy himself. Michel Nieva's vision of our beleaguered world two centuries into the future is at once hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, with no mercy shown for any of its survivors. Be warned though: the psychotropic effects of Dengue Boy have not been studied, but their hallucinogenic impact will linger long after you turn the final page."
--David Demchuk, author of RED X and The Bone Mother "Michel Nieva's Dengue Boy is a wild book, surprising on every page; insightful, funny and grotesque. A unique hybrid of body horror, absurdist satire and dystopian science fiction, this novel critiques capitalism and colonialism with an entrancing humorous tone and a gruesome plot." --Venezia Paloma, The Skinny
"As you might expect from a novel whose central character is a giant human-mosquito hybrid, 'stylized' doesn't quite do justice to how offbeat Dengue Boy can get . . . It's frequently a dizzying read, true, but there's plenty of righteous anger at this novel's core--and a haunting sadness that runs throughout." --Tobias Carroll, Reactor
--Charlie Jane Anders, Washington Post "The book is classic dystopian pulp: global warming, pandemics, radioactive mutation; rich people surviving in climate-controlled enclaves; poor people living short, wretched lives. But it's also a wildly original anti-capitalist satire . . . It's all delightfully whimsical and absurd, but the core drama--capitalism's discontents coming home to roost--couldn't be more realistic."
--Max Pearl, The Guardian "A brilliantly strange new novel . . . [Dengue Boy] is a grimace that turns into a grin . . . It is weirdness sliced up, spun in a salad spinner, and served with some indescribable gunk on top. It's delicious, if you can stomach it."
--Matt Reynolds, WIRED "[Dengue Boy] is a demented fever dream, bilious, splenetic, awash with spilled bodily fluids and shot through with the blackest of humour . . . [Nieva splices] Ballard, Borges and Lovecraft to create an almost unclassifiable piece of work that's both utterly engrossing and unrepentantly gross-out."
--James Lovegrove, Financial Times "[A] psychedelic fever dream."
--Adam Morgan, Esquire "As you might expect from a novel whose central character is a giant human-mosquito hybrid, 'stylized' doesn't quite do justice to how offbeat Dengue Boy can get . . . It's frequently a dizzying read, true, but there's plenty of righteous anger at this novel's core--and a haunting sadness that runs throughout."
--Tobias Carroll, Reactor "Michel Nieva's Dengue Boy is a wild book, surprising on every page; insightful, funny and grotesque. A unique hybrid of body horror, absurdist satire and dystopian science fiction, this novel critiques capitalism and colonialism with an entrancing humorous tone and a gruesome plot."
--Venezia Paloma, The Skinny "Freaky, bizarr-o, and oftentimes disgusting . . . Dengue Boy is hilarious, surreal, incredibly ambitious, but not so serious enough to refrain from a good sex joke . . . I haven't read anything like it--Nieva's kind of freaky is the one the literary world desperately needs."
--Sam Franzini, Pizza Bagel Press "[Dengue Boy is] brutal and shocking, but those who buckle up are in for a wild and visceral ride."
--Nathalie Atkinson, Everything Zoomer ★ "Delightfully gonzo and hilariously surreal, this novel turns nightmarish visions into vital art. It's a sui generis showstopper."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review ★ "A dystopian fever dream that's equal parts poetic and profane, beautiful and splattered with gore."
--John Keogh, Booklist, starred review "Nieva's English-language debut boils both into a hallucinogenic cocktail about the end of one world and the beginnings of another . . . [Dengue Boy is] a hyperkinetic, audacious grotesquerie about metamorphosis and the inevitability of change."
--Kirkus Reviews
"An incredibly exciting new voice in speculative fiction . . . Dengue Boy is a striking reminder of the power of genre fiction to speak truth to power and to vividly reveal the uncomfortable inequalities our society is built on. It mixes plausible biological and technological speculation with cutting satire and imaginatively surreal imagery. Nieva has created a modern masterpiece, and established himself as a key new voice in speculative fiction."
--Jonathan Thornton, The Fantasy Hive "Michel Nieva has placed a strong bet with this steampunk novel that imagines the disappearance of the south of Latin America between gaucho literature, violent videogames and monetized diseases. Intelligent, entertaining and brutal."
--Mariana Enriquez, author of A Sunny Place for Shady People "An incandescent imagination that illuminates the strangeness of everything around us with just the right amounts of unease and tenderness."
--Valeria Luiselli, author of Lost Children Archive "Do not lick this book! Dengue Boy is a psychedelic literary funhouse like no other, its richly imagined narrative mutating and reconfiguring chapter by chapter like the Dengue Boy himself. Michel Nieva's vision of our beleaguered world two centuries into the future is at once hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, with no mercy shown for any of its survivors. Be warned though: the psychotropic effects of Dengue Boy have not been studied, but their hallucinogenic impact will linger long after you turn the final page."
--David Demchuk, author of RED X and The Bone Mother "Michel Nieva's Dengue Boy is a wild book, surprising on every page; insightful, funny and grotesque. A unique hybrid of body horror, absurdist satire and dystopian science fiction, this novel critiques capitalism and colonialism with an entrancing humorous tone and a gruesome plot." --Venezia Paloma, The Skinny
"As you might expect from a novel whose central character is a giant human-mosquito hybrid, 'stylized' doesn't quite do justice to how offbeat Dengue Boy can get . . . It's frequently a dizzying read, true, but there's plenty of righteous anger at this novel's core--and a haunting sadness that runs throughout." --Tobias Carroll, Reactor
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Astra House
Pub date:
2025-02-04
Length:
224 pages
The Allstora Membership
Membership Perks:
- Save 30% on all online store purchases
- Exclusive access to author's content
- You pay less, but authors still earn double
Membership Terms:
First Month:
$0.00
Monthly price:
$5.00
- To access membership discount simply log in and add to cart, discount applied automatically.
- One month free trial, cancel anytime. Membership renews on the 15th of each month.