A Portrait of a Woman and a Still Life of Her Burger is a novel by Candelaria Saenz Valiente in which the protagonist – an artist in her mid-40s – has recently separated from her husband after a two-decade long marriage and has fallen in love with a polyamorous young man who doesn’t fully reciprocate her feelings.
In an attempt to express her dissatisfaction, Francis (the artist) begins writing about the relationships between the people she imagines belong to her polycule. But things begin to shift into a game of mirrors when Francis meets some of the people she’s written about. A series of events will then culminate with Francis and her friends crashing the 40th birthday party of her husband’s new girlfriend. A disastrous outcome serves as a rite of passage, delivering the protagonists onto the other side of that experience with a transformed sense of self.
Cutt Press, 212pp, 13.5cm x 20cm, paperback, 2026
