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Tender is the Flesh
Tender is the Flesh (Spanish: Cadáver exquisito) is the second novel of Argentinian writer Agustina Bazterrica. In the world of the work,

Plot
Due to a global pandemic, most animals have contracted a deadly disease, called GGB, that can be transmitted to human beings. Thus, meat is not available anymore and animals are feared and killed.

Many people cannot stand being without meat and start attacking and killing people. The government slowly passes regulations to allow for the rearing of human being and the commercialization of their flesh, labeled as "special meat." This change is called the "Transition."

The main character, Marcos Tejo works at a slaughterhouse where humans are killed, sliced and send to butchers. He grew up before the "Transition," in a world where animals meat was still consumed and animals were kept as pet. Marcos' baby boy has recently died and his wife has gone to leave with her mother for a while. Marcos' father, Armando, owned a slaughterhouse before but was not able to accept the transition. He has now dementia and lives in an expensive care-home. Marcos' sister is uninterested in their father's well-being and does not participate in the financing of his stay at the care home. Marcos feels like he cannot leave his lucrative job.

Throughout the book, the reader follows Marcos on his day-to-day job. He first goes to visit a tannery owned by a Japanese man, Señor Urami. He feels uncomfortable with the man who seems to enjoy his work a bit too much. There are even rumours that he had people killed and flayed before the "Transition." Urami insists that 'heads' (one of the euphemisms used to described human cattle) must not be bruised or killed in ways that would lower the quality of their skins.

Marcos then goes to visit a breeding centre owned by a man called El Gringo who is giving a tour of the facility to a German businessman interested in starting his own breeding centre. The three men go around the centre, witnessing how the 'heads' are reared. El Gringo and Egmont Schrei, the German man communicate with a translation device that translate their speech. Some of the 'heads' are First Generation Pure (FGP), meaning human who have grown up without any genetically modifications to accelerate their growths. They are thought after and considered much more high quality than normal 'special meat.' Marcos complain to El Gringo that the last shipment he send had two sicks 'heads'. At the end of the visit, they chance upon a barbecue where the employees of the centre are eating a kid to celebrate the birth of the child of one of the farmhand's. Marcos refused to eat any meat.

The next day, a worker of El Gringo brings him a FGP female head. Marcos wants to send her back but the worker insists that he will be fired if that happens so he places her in his barn.

He then visit a butcher shop owned by a woman named Spanel who he knew from his father's slaughter house.

The next day, one of his father's nurse, Nélida calls him, letting him know that his father has had a breakdown. He stops at a destroyed zoo on the way to the care-home, remembering when he visited the place with his father. Armando does not seem to recognize him.