Seven Ways to Kill a Cat (Siete maneras de matar a un gato)

On the outskirts of Buenos Aires, a young man caught between loyalty to his best friend and love for a woman is drawn into a criminal war that forces him to choose between perpetuating a cycle of violence or risking everything to escape it.

In one of Buenos Aires’ impoverished neighborhoods, life is measured in small strokes of luck and immense debts to violence. Gringo, a young man trapped in the routines of poverty and bad decisions, is swept along by the ambitions of his friend Chueco. It all begins with a clumsy robbery targeting a local shopkeeper known as Gordo Farías, setting off a chain reaction of betrayals, revenge, and bloodshed.

While searching for a way out of the chaos, Gringo reconnects with his cousin Toni, who offers him an alternative life: joining him as a traveling artisan and leaving the neighborhood behind. This possibility of redemption becomes a constant echo in his mind, standing in stark contrast to the vortex of violence pulling him under. His growing relationship with Yanina, Farías’s daughter, gives him a reason to dream of a different future, but it also exposes him to greater danger. Jetita, a ruthless drug trafficker seeking control of the neighborhood with police protection, sees both Yanina and her father as useful pieces in his criminal enterprise.

Forced into Jetita’s war against rival crime boss Charly, Gringo and Chueco are drawn into an increasingly brutal conflict. Chueco embraces violence as a path to power, while Gringo is consumed by guilt and doubt, aware that every step deeper into the underworld takes him farther from the life he might have had. The gang war transforms the neighborhood into a battlefield, where retaliation reaches innocent victims and the feeling of siege becomes inescapable.

The climax arrives when every storyline converges inside Farías’s bar. The establishment, now both refuge and trap amid the gang war, becomes a pressure cooker filled with mobsters, prostitutes, victims, and perpetrators trapped under crossfire. The atmosphere is one of claustrophobia and desperation. Gringo and Chueco burst into the besieged kitchen, confronted with a scene of wounded bodies, lingering fear, and a future that seems blocked from every direction.

The story ends abruptly, offering no clear resolution. Readers are left suspended in uncertainty: will Gringo manage to break free from the cycle of violence that defines him, or is he doomed to repeat it until the very end? This unresolved tension is not a void, but rather the novel’s harshest statement: in a world shaped by poverty and brutality, redemption is not always possible.

RELEVANT INFORMATION: Matías Néspolo is an Argentine journalist and writer based in Barcelona. In 2010, he was selected by Granta as one of the best young Spanish-language writers.

Seven Ways to Kill a Cat is a coming-of-age story about friendship, loyalty, love, disappointment, and betrayal, conceived by Néspolo from the outset with a cinematic adaptation in mind. The novel offers a raw and vibrant portrait of life on society’s margins, combining criminal tension, human drama, and social critique. Its ensemble cast and intense narrative make it highly cinematic material, capable of immersing audiences in the claustrophobia of the neighborhood and the inevitability of tragedy. The open ending provides a particularly powerful device for audiovisual adaptation.

AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Movie

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish, English, French, Italian, Dutch.