About The Book

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.

Praise

“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.