A surprising, engrossing and darkly funny novel that experiments with the idea of what it means to be human, from a powerful new voice in Argentinian fiction

On the outskirts of Buenos Aires in 1907, Doctor Quintana pines for head nurse Menendez while he and his colleagues embark on a grisly series of experiments to investigate the line between life and death. One hundred years later, a celebrated artist goes to extremes in search of aesthetic transformation, turning himself into an art object.

How far are we willing to go in pursuit of transcendence? The world of Comemadre is full of vulgarity, excess and farce - strange ants that form almost perfect circles, missing body parts, obsessive love affairs and flesh-eating plants. Here the monstrous is not alien, but the consequence of our relentless drive for collective and personal progress.