A young woman in the Canary Islands struggles through the daily grind of work, dating, and inexplicably disdainful coworkers in Meryem El Mehdati's funny, brutally honest slice-of-life debut novel, Supersaurio.
Protagonist Meryem, a 25-year-old Canarian woman from a Moroccan family, is part of "the most educated generation in history, the worst paid, the most overcaffeinated, the most insecure, the most depressed, the one with the most hang-ups." She has a humanities degree, lives with her parents, and has recently started an internship in the corporate offices of Supersaurio, the largest grocery store chain in the Canary Islands. Getting the internship felt like a stroke of fortune, a short-term employment opportunity with the alluring possibility of a permanent position.
Now she endures workday tedium that she describes as "not unlike that of a prisoner in Guantanamo," the unearned scorn of the only other woman in her department, and awkward breakroom conversations about her Islamic faith. Her colleagues struggle to remember her name, let alone correctly pronounce it. She confesses at one particularly acute moment of burnout, "I am a strong, independent woman who is also totally unhinged." Her coping strategies include using the skills she honed writing and posting fanfiction as a teen to write darkly hilarious fics based on her coworkers and texting Omar, a supervisor from another department who "likes to behave like he's not a boss just another cog in a wheel that spins and spins before running me over." Their camaraderie makes life at Supersaurio more bearable, but when her crush develops into a connection, Meryem must contend with the perils of a possible office relationship. The frustrations of her months on the job will reshape her attitudes about work, herself, and what it takes to get by in a world where the battle always seems uphill.
Novels about persevering against everyday toil are no rarity, but El Mehdati's bleak, forthright candor and modern take breathes vitality into the concept. Readers will want to root for funny, snarky, tender-hearted Meryem, but they will also reckon with the limited options available as she faces a reality in which basics like affordable housing and starting a family seem wildly out of reach. The Canary Islands setting vibrantly grounds the story with specificity, but readers all over the world will laugh and cry in solidarity with Meryem's struggles. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads
Shelf Talker: A woman in the Canary Islands faces the tedium of an underpaid office job and the angst of an uncertain future in this bleak, funny take on life as a modern young professional.