At 24, Rita scrapes by in London between precarious jobs and relationships that are beginning to fray. After a personal crisis forces her to stop, she must confront the erosion of her bonds in an intimate and raw story, told with the close voice of a darker Sally Rooney and the emotional intensity of Euphoria.
Rita is 24 years old and has been living in London for some time, sharing a flat, precarious jobs, and long nights with the persistent feeling of always being halfway between who she was and who she still does not know how to be. Her life unfolds between bars, poorly paid shifts, and relationships with few expectations—a way of inhabiting the world that seems light until one night, after a casual sexual encounter, a man ejaculates inside her without warning or consent. The fear of pregnancy and the sudden awareness of having lost control over her own body mark a breaking point and force Rita to stop and look at herself with uncomfortable clarity.
From that moment on, small cracks open in the bonds that sustain her. Her friendship with Lis—flatmate and life companion since adolescence—undergoes a silent transformation. Lis is increasingly absent, more withdrawn, and between them a new distance settles in, not born of betrayal or a specific conflict, but of the natural wear of two lives that no longer move at the same pace. What for years was a refuge begins to feel uncomfortable, as old reproaches, shared fears, and the difficulty of accepting that even the deepest friendships can change or end come to the surface.
At the same time, Eva, Rita’s older sister, whom she has always seen as a model of stability and success, goes through her own crisis after an unexpected pregnancy. For the first time, Rita discovers the fragility behind that seemingly solid figure, and this revelation reshapes their relationship and allows Rita to look at herself with less harshness.
The novel advances through everyday scenes—conversations, silences, minimal gestures—in which the body, desire, and fear occupy a central place. London appears more as a space of exposure than of promise, and the decisions Rita begins to contemplate are not about radical change, but about learning to let go of what no longer sustains her.
Small Animals is, in essence, the story of how a friendship falls apart without spectacle or catastrophe: not as a failure or a betrayal, but as a natural process tied to growth and to lives that no longer fit together. An intimate and physical account of the end of certain stages and the need to accept that even the deepest bonds can be exhausted without leaving anyone to blame.
RELEVANT INFORMATION: Mercedes Duque Espiau is a Spanish writer, anthropologist, and lecturer, praised by critics for her moving prose and for portraying a faithful generational portrait of human relationships and contemporary issues.
In 2025 she published her first novel, Small Animals, an intimate and close story set at a moment of vital change.
Through everyday and recognizable situations, the novel accompanies its characters as their relationships and certainties transform. With few settings, a realistic tone, and close attention to gestures, silences, and bonds, the book offers very attractive material for a film or short-series adaptation—current, accessible, and with a clear connection to young adult audiences.
What the critics say:
“It makes us ask who we are and how we have come to shipwreck on this shore so far from salvation.” – Elaine Vilar Madruga
“Vivid, moving, beautiful and clouded, tender and piercing. It goes through you at hundreds of different points and stays pulsing inside you like a puppy in a burrow.” – Elisa Victoria
“The inhospitable path of two girls toward maturity. Mercedes Duque wraps us in her prose in a current and effervescent account of the mourning of friendship.” – Silvia Hidalgo
“Small Animals is a novel as soft and dangerous as an ermine. An X-ray of a generation fed by dreams and devoured by reality.” – laSexta
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV series, Miniseries, Feature film, TV film.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish.
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