Is there a more exciting author/translator duo working today than Eva Baltasar and Julia Sanches? I’m honestly not convinced. I was blown away by Boulder last year and was similarly devoured by Mammoth this week. I haven’t yet read Permafrost, which I’ll be rectifying ASAP. 

In Mammoth, our lesbian protagonist finds herself craving a baby which involves forcing herself to have sex with men. She starts her mission with rigour, becoming disenchanted as time drags on. She decides  to leave city life behind and live in a dilapidated house in the middle of nowhere, building a teetering friendship with the roughshod shepherd ‘next door’. 

I couldn’t tear myself away from the words, the abandon with which the protagonist throws herself into her new life is like a car crash. You can’t look away, much as you might want to. The prose is urgent, raw, rugged, honestly in awe of Julia Sanches’ translation skills. The ending is so intense I couldn’t sit comfortably in bed while reading, I had to sit fowards. If that’s not a sign of excellent writing I don’t know what is. 

Not a perfect read because of the cat deaths. I know we’re not meant to find the MC likeable but that was a tad too far.