“Strange, visceral, and deeply moving, Mariia Niskavaara has written a debut that burrows itself under your skin, down to the flesh, hitting some nerves, and tickling a bone or two.”— SZILVIA MOLNAR, author of The Nursery

“Esther, the Butcher is truly more magic trick than novel, conjuring such startling emotional intensity from its lean sentences that I needed to catch my breath at the end.” — AINSLIE HOGARTH, author of Strange Harm

“Mariia Niskavaara is a singular voice in fiction. The prose is clean, sparse, and cuts right to the heart of the matter. You’ve never met anyone quite like Esther before.” — KATIE YEE, author of Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar

“An unconventional novel, so disturbing that it evokes an irresistible pleasure.” — VERONICA RAIMO, author of Lost on Me

“Esther, the Butcher is, in a word, visceral, and in such a powerful, gorgeously realized way. Sometimes fresh and playful language and fully inhabited moments of beauty and grotesquerie and a fearlessness on the page are themselves meaty and nourishing to read—that’s how I felt turning the pages of this vibrancy of a book.”— AIMEE BENDER, author of The Butterfly Lampshade

“There’s a completely new way of telling the story of who we are. Her name is Mariia Niskavaara: she’s ruthless, sharp, uncompromising, and she understands us with indescribable tenderness, right down to the very depths of our flesh.” — FEDERICA MANZON

“I read almost faint with amazement at what Niskavaara’s imagination conjures. I love her blunt matter-of-fact sentences and absurd characters. There’s the Perfect Woman, who has undergone a navel-removal operation. There’s the Nude Model, who has pig’s teats. The book is nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize. I’m not surprised. This grotesque fairy tale is wild and violent—but also wildly brilliant.” — VENLA PYSTYNEN, Kodin Kuvalehti

“Frightening, disconcerting, I was deeply disturbed.” — NUSSAIBAH YOUNIS, author of Fundamentally

“The book breathes flesh, fleshiness, and corporality. . . . Niskavaara’s narration is precisely cut and, in small gestures, draws a picture of Esther in a meat-filled world. The book makes the reader laugh in several places. . . . At the same time, the reader is entwined in Esther world with such skill that, in the tragic twists in the end, you only want the best for her. . . . The book is a kindred spirit to, for example, Sayaka Murata’s Earthlings where a twisted world and laconic narration turn into a powerful societal statement about, among others, eating, procreation, and the role of a woman. . . . Human is an animal among animals, as Esther, the Butcher demonstrates with a rare poignancy.”— ANNA HOLLINGSWORTH, Kulttuuritoimitus culture portal (5/5 stars)