THE LONG-AWAITED DEBUT OF ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED AND AWARD-WINNING POETIC VOICES

A unique queer novel that torpedoes the immortal boundaries of affections: is it possible to love outside a common language?

After five years away from Italy, Mia returns to Lecce to care for her mother, in an advanced state of dementia, who no longer speaks, only sings. At home she meets Cavalli, a stray cat who awakens a new and strange tenderness in her mother, whose physical and mental deterioration, combined with the intimacy she has established with the animal, places Mia in an obsessive process of transformation. If she could not be loved as a daughter, perhaps she can receive that love from another place.

Leche cruda explores the blurred limits of communication, the queer drive of imagination, and the urgency to invent ways of loving outside a common tongue. Between the poetic and the raw, it asks: could crossing the borders between human and animal be a way to shorten the gap that separates us?

Ángelo Néstore uses a hybrid language that melts gender barriers to delve into universal themes such as grief, fierce attachments between mothers and daughters, illness, and everyday delicacy. With this novel, which is read with the body and senses, he shows us that mistakes shape our future and that affections are a celebration if they come hand in hand with literature.

“A voluptuous and melancholic celebration of language. [...] It has the warm texture of memory, with its traps and idealizations. If we are what our memory selects to build us, I have rarely read it as clearly and movingly as in this novel. Pure beauty.” – Alana S. Portero

Ángelo Néstore (Lecce, 1986) is a poet, performer, and artist based in Málaga. He has published, among others, the poetry collections Actos impuros, Hágase mi voluntad, and Deseo de ser árbol, recognized with awards such as the Hiperión, Emilio Prados, and the V ESPASAesPOESÍA Prize. His poetic work appears in various anthologies and has been translated into several languages. In addition to his work as a translator and teacher, he directs the poetry publishing house Letraversal and co-directs the Irreconciliables festival. Leche cruda is his first novel.