{"product_id":"renes-flesh","title":"René's Flesh","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Piñera makes Stephen King look like Dr. Seuss.”  —Alan Ryan\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe celebrated Cuban writer Virgilio Piñera’s greatest novel, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eRené’s Flesh\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, first published in 1956, opens in an unnamed city in an unspecified time with René, a gay man just turned twenty, standing in line outside a butcher shop where he has been sent by his father to buy some meat. A hanging side of beef confronts him, and faced with it, Rene recoils. In Spanish, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003ecarne\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003ecan mean both meat and flesh, and throughout Piñero's pathbreaking novel of initiation René is in desperate and unavailing flight from his fleshly existence as he moves thorugh a world full of people who want him and people who want to do him harm. And who, finally, can tell the difference? Certainly not René.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOut of print in for over 25 years, Mark Schafer's masterly English translation has been carefully revised for this reissue.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New York Review Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55765023817896,"sku":"9798896231332","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0726\/9203\/files\/Pinera-1-1.jpg?v=1784307911","url":"https:\/\/www.nyrb.com\/products\/renes-flesh","provider":"New York Review Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}