The Habit

The heroine of the novel The Habit is a girl trapped in a boy' s body, trying to understand herself and the world in which she lives. He grows up in the 1980s in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Madrid. In a godforsaken part of town ravaged by a heroin epidemic, in a place where neighborhood togetherness and incomprehensible violence flourish. As puberty approaches, he begins to make secret trips to the city center, discovering cafes, clubs, and neighborhoods with amazing nightlife. In an environment full of wild and sad existences, nonconformist young people, prostitutes and fallen angels, she feels closer to herself and it seems that she is finally finding her place in life and society, albeit uprooted from the majority. However, with each step forward, they must face more and more violence that they are unable to effectively confront. The girl' s loving parents only have a vague idea of what their child is going through, and are often more clueless than she is. Ultimately, it is other women who give the heroine strength, self-confidence, and the feeling that she too can belong somewhere.

 The novel Bad Habit tells the story of the links between gender and social status, the search for one' s own identity, and the power of sisterhood. It doesn' t embellish anything, but it still has a magical effect. It pays homage to people on the margins, courageous loners, and the Spanish metropolis itself. It' s raw, wild, but also a lyrical and moving work, in which extremes meet and touch each other, so that we can see, why anger and resistance against the system are necessary for survival in society, which does not accept you, who are the others.

Spanish writer, poet, playwright and theater director Alana S. Portero was born in 1978. She grew up in the Madrid suburb of San Blas, like the heroine of her novel The Habit, and studied history at the Autonomous University of Madrid. In 2008, she made her debut with the theater play Música silenciosa (Silent Music), followed by four poetry collections, and her prose texts have also been published in many anthologies. She writes about culture, feminism, and LGBT+ activism with a particular focus on the reality of transgender women, and is strongly involved in public life. She co-founded the STRIGA theater company, writes for the Spanish periodicals Eldiario.es, Public, El Salto Diario, SModa or Vogue, He also publishes his texts on the Patreon platform. The manuscript of the novel The Habit caused a sensation at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2022, even before its publication. Since then, Alan S. Portero received several Spanish literary awards for the book, and the novel received huge reader acclaim and rave reviews in publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian. It has been translated into 14 languages and has been published, among others, English, German, French and Portuguese, the film rights were purchased by Mediapro.