A review by abbie_
Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories by Agustina Bazterrica

dark mysterious fast-paced

3.5

Thanks to Netgalley & Pushkin Press for my e-arc!

Agustina Bazterrica burst into the English-speaking literary world in 2020 with the disturbing Tender Is the Flesh, a book I loved, and her second offering in translation is a morbid collection of short stories. Nineteen Claws and a Blackbird all, more or less, focus around themes of death and dying, and I won’t lie it can weigh heavily on the reader at times!

There are some reprieves in the almost flash fiction-like stories - punchy little morsels like Roberto (a young girl finds a rabbit growing between her legs) and The Continuous Equality of the Circumference (a woman strives for her ultimate goal - to become a perfect circle) that you read in about two minutes but think about for the next hour. The rest of the stories are all also quite short (none longer than 20 pages and most around 10), so you do feel like you’re flying through it. There were a few stories that just went right over my head - the language here is quite different to Tender is the Flesh (brutal in its sparseness), with more flowery prose that meant some stories felt more like style over substance. (As a side note, Sarah Moses has translated both and I’d love to hear her thoughts on the differences between the texts!)

However, there are some heavy hitters that I loved and that truly unsettled me: The Solitary Ones, which will make you never want to ride an underground train again; Teicher Vs Nietzsche, a darkly funny stand-off between a man and his ex’s cat; and Mary Carminum, where a group of women hide something more sinister behind gaudy costume jewellery. I also loved the vibe of Elena-Marie Sandoz, which completely caught me off-guard by the end.

Overall, a solid collection which is a must-read for those of you who enjoy your short fiction on the darker side!
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