Tender is the Flesh, by Agustina Bazterrica (Sarah Moses tr.)

 Disturbing. 

Spoilers abajo:

The world has changed. We can no longer eat animals. There's a virus they carry that harms humans. Vegan revenge. But then scientists prove that plant protein isn't sufficient nutrition. Humans need meat. They need special meat.

Thus begins the raising of humans for food. They're called 'head' instead of man or woman. Male and female head. It's illegal to eat anything with a first and last name. Unless they volunteer. Strong males are put aside for the game parks, where hunters can chase them down, kill them, eat them, mount the heads in their trophy rooms. 

All terribly disgusting. 

The main character is gifted a female head by one of his business contacts. There are those in this terrible world who raise "domestic head" in their homes, so this is not unusual. The problem for Marcos is this particular head is gorgeous. His wife has left him after the death of their son, his father is in a home with dementia, things are not good for him. He decides to "enjoy" his gift. 

Eight months later the reader discovers Jasmine (he's named the head, another no-no) is pregnant. Then begins a dangerous time when Marcos could be discovered to have had intercourse with cattle (punishable by death in the slaughterhouse). His father dies, a truck carrying a shipment of head is ambushed by Scavengers who kill the driver, an inspector comes by to certify that he still has the female head. He manages to get through all this without getting caught, but when Jasmine starts to give birth, he has to call in help. And who does he know with medical training? His wife of course.

She's disgusted with what her husband did, until she sees the baby boy. Then words like "mine" and "ours" come from her lips. Marcos then grabs a club and knocks Jasmine out. He drags her to the barn to slaughter her, as is his right in this new, terrible world. 

Spoilers termine.

Gross book. The chapters going through the process were particularly hard to get through. Thank goodness the book was short. This is book #2 of the 10 translated books I want to read this year, this one from the Spanish.