Set against the gritty, working-class backdrop of San Blas, a neighborhood in Madrid, La mala costumbre spans the 1980s and 1990s. The story follows an unnamed protagonist—a trans girl growing up in a world that lacks the vocabulary, safety, and understanding to accommodate her true self. A Devastating and Beautiful Coming-of-Age
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If you are looking for a story about overcoming adversity with a neat bow on top, look elsewhere. Portero is interested in something more complicated—the habit of self-destruction, the beauty found in the margins, and the radical act of surviving when the world wants you to disappear.
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: The story begins in the post-Franco era, a period of transition in Spain marked by a contrast between rigid patriarchal tradition and a blossoming underground scene. The narrator's childhood is shaped by a landscape of poverty, heroin addiction, and structural violence. Protagonist's Journey La mala costumbre - Alana S. Portero.epub
Alana S. Portero's " La mala costumbre " is a powerful coming-of-age story that follows a trans woman finding her identity in working-class Madrid, navigating a hostile world while forging a path of resilience. The novel blends gritty realism with poetic reflection, tracing her journey from childhood in San Blas to embracing her true self and finding a sense of arrival.
La mala costumbre (translated as The Bad Habit ) is a highly acclaimed novel by Spanish writer, historian, and activist Alana S. Portero. Published in 2023 (by the publishing house Seix Barral), the novel has established itself as one of the most important contemporary works of LGBTQ+ literature in Spain. It is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story that explores the construction of identity through the lens of a trans girl growing up in a hostile environment.
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Upon its release in 2023, La mala costumbre did not just enter the literary market; it stormed it. Set against the gritty, working-class backdrop of San
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Before we even meet the protagonist’s interior world, Portero anchors us in the concrete and asphalt of San Blas. This is not the romanticized Madrid of Almudena Grandes or the chic boulevards of modern tourism. This is a post-industrial wasteland of brick housing projects, heroin (the caballo that claimed so many lives during the AIDS crisis), and a suffocating brand of machismo.
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The narrator navigates a "double life," hiding her true self to avoid violence and social ostracization while observing the world of women—including her mother and neighbors—with a mix of idealization and fear. Major Themes Which of these aspects Share public link If
(English title: Bad Habit ) is the 2023 debut novel by Spanish playwright and poet Alana S. Portero . A visceral and lyrical coming-of-age story, the book has become an international literary phenomenon, translated into over 17 languages. It explores the intersections of gender, class, and identity in post-Franco Spain. Plot Overview
[San Blas, Madrid (1980s-90s)] ──> [Working-Class Reality] ──> [Secret Trans Identity] │ [Found Sisterhood & Survival] <── [The Nocturnal Madrid Underground] <──┘
While the ".epub" extension in your search query refers to a specific digital file format (an e-book format), the following is a helpful report on the literary work itself, its themes, and its significance.
Through a series of violent and tender episodes, the protagonist navigates first loves, sexual discovery, and the constant threat of transphobic violence. Her escape is found in the alternative spaces of Madrid's nightlife and, crucially, in knowledge. Her decision to study history is symbolic of her search for a "genealogy of her own," a way to anchor her existence in a past that has, until then, been denied to people like her. The novel’s title refers to the habit of self-denial she must overcome, a painful and lengthy process that leads, finally, to a form of hard-won, luminous acceptance.
A: That is a sign of a pirated copy. Official EPUBs from Seix Barral use correct UTF-8 encoding for Spanish accents (á, é, í, ó, ú, ñ). Pirated versions often scramble these.