Discontent

Discontent is the debut novel by Spanish writer and journalist Beatriz Serrano, a darkly funny satire of modern work culture (original Spanish title 'El descontento'), translated into English by Mara Faye Lethem. Its antiheroine, Marisa, is a mid-level manager in the creative department of a glossy Madrid advertising agency who despises the corporate world she has climbed through on a mix of lies and other people's work.

Behind a polished office persona, Marisa hides in her office bingeing videos and self-medicating with tranquilizers, detached from everyone around her. When she is forced to attend a team-building retreat in the Segovia forests, the performance cracks and she is pushed toward a full spiral.

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, Discontent captures a post-Covid reckoning with work, purpose, and meaning. It will resonate with readers of upmarket literary fiction and workplace satire in the vein of My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Severance.