Elena Knows

‘I always begin writing my books with an image that acts like a trigger. I allow this image to steep in my mind, the characters then begin to speak, to reveal their conflicts. It’s like a tangled ball of wool that I unwind bit by bit. In the case of Elena Knows this image was a woman, a woman in her kitchen at home, sitting bent over in a chair waiting for the pill she’s taken to take effect so she can get up. This was the trigger image. I should also acknowledge that this diseased body of the character Elena is inspired by the body of my mother, who suffered from the same illness, Parkinson’s.

‘In Burzaco, the small town in the province of Buenos Aires where I was born and grew up, it wasn’t unusual for someone to climb up to the church belfry to kill themselves because actually there weren’t too many methods available: either you hanged yourself in the church, or you threw yourself in front of the train. In fact, during my childhood, I saw dead people being brought down from the belfry of the Church of the Immaculate Conception on three occasions. After that comment by my teacher, chatting with a friend I grew up with, we had the following conversation: “Are you writing at the moment?” she asked me. “Yes,” I replied. “What’s the new novel about?” “It’s the story of a woman whose daughter is found hanging from the belfry and she wants to know if she killed herself or was killed.” “Ah, so it takes place in Burzaco then,” my friend concluded.’

Read the full interview here.

‘Claudia Piñeiro’s short and deeply felt novel, evokes the loneliness of ageing and the uncertainty of memory. Frances Riddle’s brutal yet sparing translation suggests the shadows and light of noir without ever eclipsing the very human tragedy at the core of the book.’

Kathleen Rooney, The New York Times

‘Short and stylish […]. It’s a tight and terse mystery with a decisive protagonist. But it’s also a piercing commentary on mother-daughter relationships, the indignity of bureaucracy, the burdens of caregiving and the impositions of religious dogma on women.’

The Guardian

‘Her novels often feature incisive social and historical scrutiny. Her third novel for adults, Elena Knows, is a perfect example: a complex character study of three women affected by their society’s oppressive rules, within a murder mystery.’