Elena Knows
Elena Knows
Claudia Piñeiro
Translated by Frances Riddle
WINNER OF LIBERATURPREIS 2010
From the ‘Hitchcock of the River Plate’ (Corriere della Sera) comes Piñeiro’s third novel, a unique tale that interveaves crime fiction with intimate tales of morality and search for individual freedom.
After Rita is found dead in the bell tower of the church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation, Elena Knows unravels the secrets of its characters and the hidden facets of authoritarianism and hypocrisy in our society.
(On Piñeiro’s debut novel, Thurday Night Widows) ‘An agile novel written in a language perfectly pitched for the subject matter, a ruthless dissection of a fast decaying society”. José Saramago