A blend of female rage and socio-political commentary

Argentina seems to be fertile breeding ground for feminist body horror writers who have caught the imagination of English speakers in recent years.

- Ong Sor Fern

Agustina Bazterrica, part of the onslaught which includes Mariana Enriquez and Samanta Schweblin, shot into the international limelight when her dystopian cannibal fable Tender Is The Flesh was translated into English in 2020.

The Unworthy is, similarly, a female-centric post-apocalyptic story.

The nameless narrator documents her life as an "unworthy" in the claustrophobic environs of the House Of The Sacred Sisterhood. One of a group of women who starve, self-flagellate and sacrifice under the unrelenting cruelties of the Superior Sister, she is nonetheless a quiet rebel.

She scribbles her impressions in ink and blood on hidden scraps despite the fact that writing is forbidden. Her innate honesty and innermost thoughts are, literally, cancelled out in lines presented in strikethrough text.