Butcher

A young Frenchwoman tells the sensual, erotic story of her summer affair with the butcher for whom she works in a sensuous and erotic novel by the author of Lucie au Long Cours.

A young Frenchwoman goes to work in a butcher's shop during her college vacation. Every day the butcher whispers obscenities in her ear, describing their imagined lovemaking. And as the summer heat takes hold, so does her lust.

A tremendous sensation when first published in Europe, The Butcher has sold over half a million copies in France alone, was a best-seller in England, and has established Alina Reyes as a major new voice in erotic fiction. Here it is coupled with Reyes's second novella, Lucie's Long Voyage, which also features her irresistible blend of sensual earthiness and the dreamlike imagery of a fractured fairy tale.

"Nothing short of staggering...an erotic tour de force; an exploration of raw sensuality."--The London Standard

"Her depiction of sex has sparked a resurgence of erotica as a lost literary tradition.... The language is as rich as calves' liver."--The Times (London)

"I never knew such goings-on were even possible in a freezer.... This is eroticism on a fantasy level."--Daily Express

"Utterly absolutely sexy.... The Butcher has that crafted, stylised quality...which compels the reader to linger and is another magnificent touch in the explosive build up of sexual tension. Its contents are guaranteed to disturb, unnerve and grip you; you will want to read it again and again."--Literary Review

"Reading Alina Reyes is like inhaling a heady smell--you get quite dizzy but you don't want to stop.... The writing is pure poetry."--Portrait Magazine

"Concentrated, written in hyper-real, attenuated prose, the novel traces the urgency of adolescent desire-sexuality without intellectual brakes, unsullied by memory or experience."--The Independent

"Extraordinary.... I was compelled to read it in one sitting."--Granta

"The narrative thrums with sexual urgency."--Elle

"For its economy of detail and its erotic power it knocks the spots off the heavy-breathing marauders who welcome best-sellers."--The Times Literary Supplement

Alina Reyes was born in 1956 in Soulac in the southwest of France. She left school early, married, but then returned to her studies, completing a master's thesis on the fantasy stories of the nineteenth-century writer Marcel Schwob. While studying she supported herself and her two sons by working as a freelance journalist. Her controversial first novel, The Butcher, was originally written for a competition of erotic writing. This was followed by Lucie's Long Voyage. Reyes is also the author of The Fatal Bodice, When You Love You Must Depart, and Behind Closed Doors. She currently lives in Paris.