The year is 2272 and the last of the polar icecaps have melted. New York and Buenos Aires were submerged years ago and the Patagonian Archipelagos have been radically transformed into the only habitable lands on Earth.

Here, in the unbearable heat of Victorica, Argentina, our child protagonist is a humanoid mosquito. Carrier of the deadly dengue virus, his monstrous appearance not only makes him a target for his cruel classmates - led by the little tyrant El Dulce - but also elicits disgust from his own mother.

As the world spirals to its end, Dengue Boy searches for the meaning of his life and his true origins. Elsewhere, adults negotiate the value of pandemics on the Stock Exchange and waste the last of Earth's resources, while children more privileged than Dengue Boy plug into virtual realities and constant streams of violent video games. In delirious prose that brings together the picaresque, manga, body horror and cyberpunk, Dengue Boy delivers an extraordinary and bizarre portrait of a demented future.

Michel Nieva is an Argentinian writer based in New York, where he teaches at NYU. A Granta Best Young Spanish-Language Novelist and also a 2022 O. Henry Award Winner, Nieva has published short stories and essays. Dengue Boy is his debut novel.

Rahul Bery translates from Spanish & Portuguese to English, and is based in Cardiff. He has translated books by David Trueba, Afonso Cruz, Simone Campos and Vicente Luis Mora and his translations have also appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, Stinging Fly, Granta and elsewhere. His translation of David Trueba's Rolling Fields was shortlisted for the 2021 TA First Translation Prize.