Beatriz Serrano

Mara Faye Lethem

Tremendously entertaining... peppered with pithy insights into the modern workplace, and plenty of vivid characters

It’s hilarious – full of one liners and pithy observations. I rooted for Marisa from the start

A wild ride... even if you love your job, you're still guaranteed to find a bit of yourself in this book

Fun, caustic and mercilessly observed, Discontent announces an impressive new comic talent in European fiction

A wry work of spectacular wit, Discontent skewers every novel of workplace ennui that has come before it. Beatriz Serrano writes with a caustic flair for detail, exploring the small humiliations of the everyday corporate office with charm and utter hilarity. Absolutely brilliant

Danya Kukafka, author of NOTES ON AN EXECUTION

Our heroine compulsively watches YouTube, pops Ativan, quotes both Britney Spears and Proust, dreads work small talk, and, at one point, Googles 'how to be creative.' I adored her. Discontent is a razor-sharp debut with a riveting climax

This intelligent, engaging novel perfectly captures the discontent of our contemporary minds, managing all the while to be totally hilarious

Aysegül Savas, author of THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS

Discontent is a love song to the listless and lonely of the LinkedIn age. Our heroine—the Xanax-popping, YouTube-abusing Marisa—is the picture of modern malaise. Sharp, sad, and sardonic, Serrano's prose is all the encouragement you need to quit that job you hate.

Office Space for literary weirdos. Discontent is brimming with witticisms and scathing observations about our modern-day malaise. While Serrano's narrator is drowning in existential dread, her debut novel never feels weighed down. Electric, lively, and brilliantly constructed by a new writer of immense talent

Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of PIZZA GIRL

An acidic reflection on the existential crisis of a generation that thought it had guaranteed success. . . Humour in abundance, a punk ending that blows the reader's mind

An x-ray as clear as it is painful of a job market that is often willing to steal the souls of those who inhabit it... one of the most outstanding literary debuts of the year

A faithful portrait of millennial disenchantment

A generational phenomenon that has crossed borders

Life can’t go on like this – can it? This book is for everyone who has ever wanted more: more time, more meaning, more connection. 
 
On the surface, Marisa’s life looks enviable. She lives in a nice apartment in the heart of Madrid, her friendly neighbour and lover Pablo lives downstairs, and she’s risen quickly through the ranks at a successful advertising agency. 
 
And yet Marisa hates her job and everything about it. Over one hot summer, she spends her working hours locked in her office, bingeing on YouTube videos and getting high on tranquilizers, wondering if everyone cries when their alarm goes off in the morning. When she can, she escapes to the air-conditioned basement of the Prado Museum. 
 
But Marisa’s façade of success is in danger of being exposed as she’s forced to deliver a talk on creativity at her company’s horrendous annual team-building retreat. Surrounded by psychopathic bosses, annoyingly overzealous colleagues, flirty facilitators, and an excess of drugs, Marisa is pushed to the brink of a complete spiral. 
 
Told with acid humour to explosive consequences, Discontent is a dazzling tale of modern angst and finally acting on our wilder impulses to reclaim our lives from work.

Beatriz Serrano

Praise for Discontent

Tremendously entertaining... peppered with pithy insights into the modern workplace, and plenty of vivid characters

Tremendously entertaining... peppered with pithy insights into the modern workplace, and plenty of vivid characters

It’s hilarious – full of one liners and pithy observations. I rooted for Marisa from the start

Tremendously entertaining... peppered with pithy insights into the modern workplace, and plenty of vivid characters

Tremendously entertaining... peppered with pithy insights into the modern workplace, and plenty of vivid characters

It’s hilarious – full of one liners and pithy observations. I rooted for Marisa from the start

Tremendously entertaining... peppered with pithy insights into the modern workplace, and plenty of vivid characters

Tremendously entertaining... peppered with pithy insights into the modern workplace, and plenty of vivid characters

It’s hilarious – full of one liners and pithy observations. I rooted for Marisa from the start

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter