{"product_id":"bloat-raquel-abend-9781644454275","title":"Bloat: A Petrofiction","description":"\u003cp\u003eA dark and consuming novel about oil, power, beauty, and the quiet resistance of women in a dystopia where death is not the ultimate harm \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eMy fellow Venezuelans, we're going to swim in black gold. Remember this year: 1999. We're not just reclaiming our spring, our Thames, our Seine. We're reclaiming our country.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn an alternate Caracas, the oil fields have dried up, and executives have implemented a new system for oil production: collecting corpses and processing them into necrofuel. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn four interlocking sections that unfold in reverse chronology, \u003ci\u003eBloat\u003c\/i\u003e follows the lives of women who live under this exploitative regime. Mercedita grieves the death of her father and resents the intrusion of investigators into her home. Merced, a sex worker living with an oil executive, struggles to retain her agency amid an increasingly restricted life. After Mamé goes missing, a watchman tries to find her while he and his nephew participate in the paramilitary that enabled her disappearance. And Mercy battles an illness while working at a restaurant frequented by the powerful. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRaquel Abend's first book translated into English explores totalitarianism in a country with two major exports: oil and pageant queens. In visceral prose that foregrounds the bleakness of its dystopia, \u003ci\u003eBloat\u003c\/i\u003e makes tangible the grief, ecological devastation, and violence faced by women in a city where bodies are primarily a means to an economic end. And yet, these women resist their dehumanization, forging community and owning their desires despite the darkness of their world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Raquel Abend\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1644454270\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781644454275\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Graywolf Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/02\/2027\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 136\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.25h x 5.50w x 1.00d","brand":"Raquel Abend","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49084179742975,"sku":"9781644454275","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/bloat-raquel-abend-9781644454275","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}