Overview

‘I urge you to read Bad Habit' PEDRO ALMODÓVAR ‘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. ‘A ballad, a quest, a revelation. It made me weep more than once’ SABA SAMS 'Painful yet unquestionably hopeful' NICOLA DINAN ‘Portero’s elegant storytelling catches a celestial light, illuminating the body in ways beyond language’ ELOGHOSA OSUNDE 'An unforgettable story … Believe the hype!' OKECHUKWU NZELU ‘Elegant and brutal, Portero's writing pierces all of our defences and lets the crying light in’ MORGAN M PAGE ‘Devastating yet beautiful’ TRAVIS ALABANZA ‘Obliges the reader to hold back (or unleash) their feelings chapter after chapter’ VOGUE SPAIN

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Reviews

‘I urge you, read Bad Habit to fully grasp the degree of adversity, pain, and danger endured for virtue of growing-up trans’ Pedro Almodóvar 'The book that everyone is reading … tells the story of a working-class transgender woman full of rage and beauty, pain and poetry' New York Times ‘Portero’s elegant storytelling catches a celestial light, illuminating the body in ways beyond language’ Eloghosa Osunde, author of Vagabonds! ‘Obliges the reader to hold back (or unleash) their feelings chapter after chapter’ Vogue Spain ‘Leaves you stunned … Devastating yet beautiful … A special and unique creation’ Travis Alabanza, author of None of the Above ‘Elegant and brutal’ Morgan M Page, author of Boys Don’t Cry ‘Such a beautiful novel … about the journey we take to become who we truly are’ Elena Medel, author of The Wonders ‘Vivid, compassionate and compulsive' Rachel Dawson, author of Neon Roses 'Beautifully-written, heartbreaking and sometimes comedic’ Tawseef Khan, author of Determination ‘A singular and raw voice … The most talked-about debut of the year’ Time Out Spain ‘Bad Habit is an engulfing novel. Portero had me captivated with her visceral prose’ Avni Doshi, author of Burnt Sugar ‘Brutal, tender, and vulnerable … Portero has written a masterpiece, an ode, a life-giving story of trans affirmation’ Marisa Crane, author of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself ‘A splendid novel … an extraordinary command of language, with an exquisite style’ El Mundo ‘Every page engulfs you and brings you back to life. So moving’ Iván Repila, author of The Ally ‘A dazzling writer, raw and brilliant’ María Sánchez, author of Land of Women ‘A voice full of beauty and rage’ Belén Gopegui, author of Stay This Day and Night with Me

‘I urge you, read Alana S. Portero's Bad Habit to fully grasp the degree of adversity, pain, and danger endured for virtue of growing-up in the wrong body’ Pedro Almodóvar ‘Obliges the reader to hold back (or unleash) their feelings chapter after chapter’ Vogue ‘A singular and raw voice … Intertwines LGBTQI+ activism and humour, beauty and pain, the dissociation of the interior and exterior world. A poetic journey/learning we can all empathise with, and one we have to applaud. The most talked-about debut of the year’ Time Out ‘The prose acquires the weight of poetry’ El País ‘Shows us a voice that owns its own universe … the kind of book that hugs you while you cry and you don't know why you cry, but you do’ Infobae ‘A splendid novel … an author with an extraordinary command of language, with an exquisite style, capable of portraying, with critical but never cynical eye’ El Mundo ‘A bold, revealing novel, full of rage and tenderness’ La Sexta ‘So devastating that it makes you hide your face behind your hands so they don’t see you cry. Every page engulfs you, and brings you back to life. So moving’ Iván Repila, author of The Ally ‘Such a beautiful novel, also cruel and full of redemption, about the journey we take to become who we truly are, and about the people that come with us to fill in the blanks’ Elena Medel, author of The Wonders ‘It’s fiction like this that stitches wounds history has been unable to, as well as righting wrongs life couldn’t’ El Periódico

Author Information

Alana S. Portero is a Medieval historian, writer, playwright, LGBT activist, and co-founder of the theatre company STRIGA. Her writings on feminism and LGTBQ activism from the perspective of a trans woman have been featured in a number of international publications, including Agente provocador, Eldiario.es, El Salto Diario, SModa and Vogue. She lives in Madrid.

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