Thirst

A Novel

By: Marina Yuszczuk, Heather Cleary - translator

Narrated by: Maria Liatis

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

“This gripping tale is full of queer representation and lush, lyrical passages, all while exploring death with an air of nihilism…Vampires are making a comeback, and Yuszczuk is spearheading their revival with this bloody novel.” —The New York Times Book Review

Across two different time periods, two women confront fear, loneliness, mortality, and a haunting yearning that will not let them rest. A breakout, genre-blurring novel from one of the most exciting new voices of Latin America’s feminist Gothic.

It is the twilight of Europe’s bloody bacchanals, of murder and feasting without end. In the nineteenth century, a vampire arrives from Europe to the coast of Buenos Aires and, for the second time in her life, watches as villages transform into a cosmopolitan city, one that will soon be ravaged by yellow fever. She must adapt, intermingle with humans, and be discreet.

In present-day Buenos Aires, a woman finds herself at an impasse as she grapples with her mother's terminal illness and her own relationship with motherhood. When she first encounters the vampire in a cemetery, something ignites within the two women—and they cross a threshold from which there’s no turning back.

With echoes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and written in the vein of feminist Gothic writers like Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maurier, and Carmen Maria Machado, Thirst plays with the boundaries of genre while exploring the limits of female agency, the consuming power of desire, and the fragile vitality of even the most immortal of creatures.

©2024 Marina Yuszczuk (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“It takes courage to write about vampires: they are the greatest of monsters, but also the most trivialized. Marina Yuszczuk manages to bring hers to life in this intimate take on the genre, which also weaves together grief, the history of Buenos Aires, and the voracity of desire.” —Mariana Enriquez, author of Our Share of Night

"The vampire is irresistible because the vampire is history, biology, desire, and death delivered in one stunning bite. Marina Yuszczuk’s Thirst, set in a beautiful, blood red Buenos Aires, brings us the vampires we crave like no other writer has before." —Samantha Hunt, author of The Unwritten Book and The Seas

“Thirst cleverly pulls you in with its melancholy prose and its setting and its haunting mood and before you know it you’ve read the whole thing while chewing on your hair. An evocative tale that both recalls and subverts the classic gothic vampire novel. What a mesmerizing read.” —Virginia Feito, author of Mrs. March

Great storyline

I hate that I have to leave 15 words to be able to leave a review that's stupid why can't I just say I like the book and I think you'll enjoy it too