Bad Habit
Alana S. Portero
We send all orders via Royal Mail: within the UK, choose from 1st Class, 2nd Class or Special Delivery; for the rest of the world, International Standard or International Tracked. Delivery and packaging charges are calculated automatically at the checkout.
To collect orders in person from the Bookshop, choose Click and Collect at the checkout.
From the publisher
Translated by Mara Faye Lethem
‘I urge you to read Bad Habit' PEDRO ALMÓDVAR
‘An engulfing novel’ AVNI DOSHI
‘The book that everyone is reading’ NEW YORK TIMES
Told in an irresistible, heartrending voice, Bad Habit takes us deep into the lives of the residents of a godforsaken Madrid neighbourhood ironically named after a holy saint.
An unnamed young trans woman grows up in a working-class suburb that has no place for her. She discovers community and kinship in downtown Madrid, amid a dazzling party scene animated by charming junkies, glamorous pop divas, and fallen angels. With each step she takes forward in the city, she finds herself confronted by an antagonism she does not yet know how to counter. In this thrilling and yet often frightening place each decision can have the highest of stakes and yet she knows that only she can forge a path forward to the life she truly wants to live.
Blistering and compassionate, Bad Habit by Alana S Portero is translated by Mara Faye Lethem, and deftly illuminates the ties between gender and class, the search for identity, and the power of chosen family. Shimmering in its lyrical beauty and vivid in its realism, Bad Habit is a searing, mesmerising story of self-realisation that speaks to the outsider in all of us.
‘Obliges the reader to hold back (or unleash) their feelings chapter after chapter’ VOGUE SPAIN
‘A tender, evocative coming of age story’ ISLE MCELROY
‘A beautiful novel … about the journey we take to become who we truly are’ ELENA MEDEL
‘Elegant and brutal, Portero's writing pierces all of our defences and lets the crying light in’ MORGAN M PAGE
‘Portero has written a masterpiece’ MARISA CRANE
‘Beautifully-written, heartbreaking’ TAWSEEF KHAN
‘Devastating yet beautiful’ TRAVIS ALABANZA