OF CATTLE AND MEN by Ana Paula Maia

Translated by Zoë Perry

It’s not hard to point to the forebears of Ana Paula Maia’s superb story of sweat, setbacks and bovine slaughter, Of Cattle and Men. There’s Steinbeck and Cormac McCarthy. Del Amo’s brutally repugnant Animalia, too. And, of course, Upton Sinclair’s revolutionary masterpiece The Jungle. However, it would do a disservice to Maia to have her book simply compared to these greats because Of Cattle and Men is a singularly compelling novel that not only sits alongside but also stands out from them all.

Edgar Wilson is chief stunner at a Brazilian beef slaughterhouse. For him, killing these gentle beasts is an act of the soul. He strives to cause the least pain, calming each animal before he strikes. When Zeca, a young punk who revels in torturing the cows, joins the line, Edgar kills the boy and dumps his body. It’s an early indication of the brittle moral line of the book, where goodness and evil coexist as much as they do battle. Full of strange characters struggling to maintain their humanity in a deeply unsettling hellscape, Of Cattle and Men is not only my favourite Charco book, but one of the highlights of my reading year.

Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia (Tr. Zoë Perry)
Charco Press, 2023
97 pages