Thirst - by Marina Yuszczuk (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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"--

Book Synopsis

"Vampires are making a comeback, and Yuszczuk is spearheading their revival with this bloody novel."
--The New York Times Book Review

It is the nineteenth century, the twilight of Europe's bloody bacchanals, and a vampire must escape. She arrives to the coast of Buenos Aires and, for the second time in her life, watches as villages transform into a cosmopolitan city. She adapts, intermingles with humans, and attempts to 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 to motherhood. When she first encounters the vampire in a cemetery, something ignites inside the two women--and they cross a threshold from which there's no turning back.

With echoes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Thirst plays with the boundaries of the Gothic genre while exploring the limits of female agency, all-consuming desire, and the fragile vitality of even the most immortal of creatures.

"Channeling Carmen Maria Machado and Anne Rice, Yuszczuk reimagines the vampire novel, with a distinctly Latin American feminist Gothic twist."
--The Millions

Review Quotes

Named Most Anticipated by Autostraddle, The Millions, Electric Literature, Read Between the Spines, Write or Die, HipLatina, Polygon, Fandomentals, and Chill Subs

"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

"If it's a sapphic twist on the paranormal you're looking for, vampires are always a safe bet. In Yuszczuk's feminist gothic fantasia, a 19th-century vampire and a modern-day woman encounter one another in a Buenos Aires cemetery, and their meeting ignites a fire between the two."
--Harper's Bazaar, "16 Best Queer Books of 2024"

"Twilight, but make it sapphic? I present you Thirst on a sexy, silver platter. Set in Buenos Aires across two different time periods, this novel is all about female agency, desire, and fragility."
--Betches

"Mesmerizingly translated by Cleary, Yuszczuk's prose is meticulous, vibrant, propulsive, and masterfully paced...Thirst is an intense, haunting, and captivating novel that draws readers in from beginning to end."
--Booklist, *starred*

"What truly shines are the author's knowledge of vampire lore and her dedication to creating a monster who could easily join the ranks of Dracula and Nosferatu. A blood-soaked tale of sex, love, and ennui that would make Anne Rice proud."
--Kirkus

"Desire, female agency, and love get examined under a gothic lens. Winner of the prestigious Sara Gallardo prize for women writers in its original language, the novel rendered into English by Heather Cleary should be your 2024 vampire novel pick."
--Electric Lit, "20 Books in Translation You Need to Read"

"This isn't your typical meet-cute. When two women--one grieving, the other a vampire, both of them alienated and yearning for more--cross paths in a Buenos Aires cemetery, romance blooms. Channeling Carmen Maria Machado and Anne Rice, Yuszczuk reimagines the vampire novel, with a distinctly Latin American feminist Gothic twist."
--The Millions, "Most Anticipated: The Great Winter 2024 Preview"

"Thirst marks the arrival of an exciting new voice in Gothic literature that readers are sure to enjoy sinking their teeth into."
--Polygon, "The 25 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books We're Excited for in 2024"

"I enjoyed the narrators' lack of hypocrisy and abundance of interiority. I also appreciated how the novel retains all of their dark and stylistic delight, without the aching inconclusiveness or censor-friendly endings of its pulpy and gothic paperback predecessors...Heather Cleary's translation maintains a lush, tactile lyricism that swept me into the history...The vibes were, to put it succinctly, immaculate."
--Lesbrary

"If you liked last year's Our Share of Night, the 1970s-set literary vampire novel from Mariana Enriquez, then you'll want to read Thirst immediately. In Marina Yuszczuk's gorgeously written gothic, a centuries-old vampire living in Buenos Aires forms a magnetic connection with a haunted mother as both seek endless nourishment for an impossible-to-fill void."
--CrimeReads, "Best International Fiction of March 2024"

"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

"There is the powerful beat of a gothic heart in this gripping, dark and sensual novel. Intimate and piercing, it manages to dissect maternal love while examining the nature of desire. A captivating and thrilling read."
--Lucie McKnight Hardy, author of Dead Relatives

"Two women walk the streets of Buenos Aires two centuries apart. They are connected by exile and blood: the exile of a vampire who fled Europe like so many others, and the exile of a woman on the brink of orphanhood; the blood of kinship and the blood of death. Marina Yuszczuk masterfully blends past and present, the intimate and the historical, and the literary traditions that have shaped Argentine literature into what it is today to create a sensual and deeply personal novel."
--Fernanda Trías, author of Pink Slime

"If we're in the midst of a vampire renaissance, Marina Yuszczuk's bloody, seductive contribution arrives with fangs bared. Dark as a bat's wing, Thirst feels like Carmen Maria Machado meets Anne Rice, with a backdrop of Buenos Aires. Absolutely exquisite."
--Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller

"Thirst is unlike anything I've read before. The narrative is so gripping and immersive, and the characters jump off the page, they feel so real"
--Chloe Michelle Howarth, author of Sunburn

About the Author

Marina Yuszczuk was born in Argentina in 1978. She is a writer and founding editor of Rosa Iceberg, a press focused on publishing writing by women. She is the author of multiple books of poetry, short-story collections, and novels. She has a PhD in literature from Universidad Nacional de la Plata and is a film critic for one of Argentina's top newspapers. Thirst is her first book to be published in the United States.