Bad Habit

‘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