Dengue Boy

A cyberpunk fever-dream of climate catastrophe: the full-length fiction debut from one of the boldest new voices in Argentinian literature, thrillingly translated by Rahul Bery. After the last Antarctic icecaps melt, calamity follows. Landscapes are radically transformed, diseases mutate and spread with unprecedented speed, and, in response, forms the ghastly “virofinance” exchange—a market for corporations to profit from pandemics and global suffering. It’s in this grim near-future of 2272, where words such as “winter” and “cold” have no meaning, the Dengue Child grows. The monstrous humanoid mosquito emerges in newly tropical Argentina, carrying its namesake virus and despairing of its own existence. Bullies brutalize the child until a violent eruption of revelation and transformation takes place, shockwaves of which will extend far beyond the schoolyard into a society full of terrors and wonders enabled and exposed by climate collapse. Powerful telepathic stones from the bowels of the earth, sought after by smugglers, seem to hold a volatile, primordial wisdom. The meager remaining glaciers are harvested for skating rinks on luxury cruises. And the youth obsess over an immersive, addictive video game that presents a virtual world far more attractive than reality. In the tradition of Kafka, Cronenberg, and Philip K. Dick, Michel Nieva's brilliant, hilarious, and demented Dengue Boy draws on manga, body horror, and gaucho-punk science fiction to tell a delirious, frenetic, singular story about the ravages of capitalism and what hope might exist, if any, for revenge and rebirth.
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AN IRISH INDEPENDENT BOOK TO CATCH YOUR IMAGINATION IN 2025 'A psychedelic fever dream' ESQUIRE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 'A rip-roaring satire of late capitalism and humanity's unerring instinct for self-sabotage' IRISH TIMES 'An incandescent imagination' VALERIA LUISELLI The year is 2272. New York and Buenos Aires were submerged years ago and the Patagonian archipelagos are the only habitable lands on Earth. Here, Dengue Boy is a humanoid mosquito whose monstrous appearance repulses everyone, including his own mother. As the world spirals to its end, Dengue Boy searches for the meaning of his life and his true origins. Elsewhere, adults exploit the value of pandemics on the Stock Exchange and waste the last of Earth's resources, while their privileged children plug into virtual realities and stream violent video games. For readers of China Miéville, Samanta Schweblin and Mariana Enríquez, with joyful, savage flair, Dengue Boy blends body horror and cyberpunk to deliver an extraordinary portrait of a demented future. Translated from Spanish by Rahul Bery
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Uma história sobre um futuro cyberpunk tropical e latino, com Dengue boy: A infância do mundo, Michel Nieva se revela uma das vozes mais interessantes na literatura latino-americana contemporânea. No ano de 2272, a crise climática atinge um ponto intransponível. As zonas polares derreteram por completo, a temperatura média global é de 90°C e cidades como Nova York e Buenos Aires se encontram submersas. No extremo sul do continente, os Arquipélagos Patagônicos formam o Caribe Pampiano: de um lado, um balneário com belíssimas praias artificiais; de outro, uma miserável e tépida orla. É nesse cenário devastado que cresce o dengue boy. Ninguém gosta do dengue boy. Na escola, seu aspecto bizarro e nojento o transforma no principal alvo das zombarias comandadas pelo pequeno tirano Dulce. Em casa, sua situação não é muito melhor. A mãe, exausta de seus dois empregos, não aguenta a bagunça feito pelo filho, que não possui mãos. E assim, deslocado, o esquisito mosquito humanoide vai levando sua vida, dia após dia, no mormaço insuportável do único canto ainda habitável da Terra. Este é um livro sobre um fim do mundo. Uma prosa cyberpunk latino-americana, tropical e frenética. Um delírio de realidades moribundas, artificiais e virtuais, em que adultos negociam o valor de pandemias na Bolsa de Valores e esgarçam os últimos recursos terrestres. E, enquanto isso, crianças definem os rumos do que sobra como quem joga videogame. Michel Nieva, uma das vozes mais interessantes e singulares da literatura argentina contemporânea, é um autor de ficção científica gaúcho -punk. Mergulhado em influências do universo do mangá, do body horror e do absurdo, o autor trabalha, com humor, cenas da vida no século 21. E nos transporta a um novíssimo século 23, no qual sua estrela brilha próxima a nomes como Franz Kafka, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jorge Luis Borges, David Cronenberg e Junji Ito. Este Dengue boy: a infância do mundo, seu primeiro livro publicado no Brasil, com tradução de Joca Reiners Terron, autor finalista do Jabuti, e capa de Amanda Miranda, finalista do CCXP Awards, é um bizarro, mas verossímil, retrato do nosso presente. "Michel Nieva aposta forte com este livro steampunk que imagina o fim do sul da América Latina com literatura gauchesca, videogames monstruosos e pragas monetizadas. Inteligente, divertido e brutal." – Mariana Enríquez, autora de As coisas que perdemos no fogo. "Uma crítica contundente e divertida às irracionalidades do sistema capitalista e um convite à construção de um futuro diferente daquele predeterminado." – La Izquierda Diario
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For fans of David Cronenberg's films and lovers of Kafka, this gaucho-punk, sci-fi novel set in 2197 offers an explosive interpretation of an ultra-capitalistic society on the brink of climate collapse. The protagonist of this story has no understanding of the words “winter”, "cold”, or "snow" because he has never experienced the phenomena they describe. We find ourselves in Victorica, a province of La Pampa, Argentina, some time after 2197 – the year in which the last of the Antarctic icecaps melted and an unprecedented climate catastrophe ensued, radically transforming the landscape of the region into a Caribbean Pampas. It is here that the Dengue Child grows up, a mutant mix of child and mosquito, the result of crazy experimenting driven by ultra-capitalistic corporations racing against each other to own viruses and their cures, destroying even their very own children’s existence to cash in on the stock exchange. Another of the surprising effects of the thaw is the appearance of powerful telepathic pebbles from the bowels of the earth that seem to encapsulate the world's original wisdom, and which are the subject of lucrative smuggling. Meanwhile, the wealthy of the region chose to cruise around on ships where they can experience ice-skating and hand carve ice from valuable remains of glaciers. In their ultra-air conditioned homes, their kids play Indians vs Christians, a brutal video game set in the historical 19th century. The future according to Michel Nieva looks frenetic and shocking. His is one of the most exciting literary voices emerging from Argentina, packing punches in a deeply intelligent, informed, and humorful prose which takes root in Latin American storytelling and sci-fi tradition.