Discontent

Tremendously entertaining... peppered with pithy insights into the modern workplace, and plenty of vivid characters * Guardian *It’s hilarious – full of one liners and pithy observations. I rooted for Marisa from the start * Daily Mail *A wild ride… even if you love your job, you’re still guaranteed to find a bit of yourself in this book * Express *Fun, caustic and mercilessly observed, Discontent announces an impressive new comic talent in European fiction * Daily Telegraph *Marisa… has become an expert in the white-collar shell game of pantomiming busyness… Beneath the novel’s breezy Office Space-style nihilism, though, Serrano — via a seamless translation by Lethem — locates the profound loneliness of her protagonist, who seems to live almost entirely behind screens or via surface encounters. Discontent is one of this year’s loveliest small surprises: a melancholy and tartly funny little bonbon of a book with a (literal) knockout ending * New York Times, Favorite Hidden Gem Books of 2025 *The only thing impeding Marisa’s pleasure is work… The author portrays Marisa’s disillusionment as being complex, and she is sensitive to her protagonist’s yearning for an alternative existence. While her hatred for working runs deep, it also heightens her appreciation of life’s pleasures * TLS *A wry work of spectacular wit, Discontent skewers every novel of workplace ennui that has come before it. Beatriz Serrano writes with a caustic flair for detail, exploring the small humiliations of the everyday corporate office with charm and utter hilarity. Absolutely brilliant – Danya Kukafka, author of NOTES ON AN EXECUTIONOur heroine compulsively watches YouTube, pops Ativan, quotes both Britney Spears and Proust, dreads work small talk, and, at one point, Googles ‘how to be creative.’ I adored her. Discontent is a razor-sharp debut with a riveting climax – Anna Dorn, author of PERFUME & PAINThis intelligent, engaging novel perfectly captures the discontent of our contemporary minds, managing all the while to be totally hilarious – Aysegül Savas, author of THE ANTHROPOLOGISTSDiscontent is a love song to the listless and lonely of the LinkedIn age. Our heroine—the Xanax-popping, YouTube-abusing Marisa—is the picture of modern malaise. Sharp, sad, and sardonic, Serrano’s prose is all the encouragement you need to quit that job you hate. – Ariel Courage, author of BAD NATURE

Beatriz Serrano is a writer and a journalist who has written for publications such as BuzzFeed, Vanity Fair, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, S Moda, and Vogue. She works for El Pais and, along with writer Guillermo Alonso, co-directs the prizewinning podcast Arsenico Caviar. Discontent is her first novel. She currently lives in Madrid.

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