I almost had to put this book down and stop reading it. The back-side of the book reveals that the novel is about cannibalism, but I didn't read that until I had read the first few chapters. The novel hooked me though. I liked the story, I liked the way it was told, I could empathize with Tereza the narrator. Maybe that is why I took the end of the book so hard.
Tereza who is a graduate student in New York, meets Jose who is in the city on a grant while he is writing a book about the Uruguayan soccer team that crashed in the Andes and resorted to cannabilism to survive. However, Jose is already married, has a son, and another on the way. The couple ignore these facts until they are forced to face reality, and then Tereza jumps into action. She decides that the only way to keep Jose with her forever is to kill him and eat his flesh in order to unit them forever.
Even though I knew after the first chapter that this was the decision that Tereza would come to, toward the end of the book when his murder is described in detail and Tereza explains why she decided to eat his fingertips first, I was too involved and had to put the book down for a few days. It was a little overwhelming. The book was beautifully written.
"Strangely, though, the author seems most shocking when Tereza, her task finished, obeys the mundane dictates of the fashion magazines she's idly thumbing through: 'After a hard day's work, treat yourself to a luxurious bubble bath.' " NY Times
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