Romancero Books and Charco Press are proud to invite you to:
A conversation with Claudia Piñeiro about her book Elena Knows, short - listed for the Booker International Prize and her translator Frances Riddle.
Join Argentinian writer Claudia Piñeiro, the translator Frances Riddle, Charco Press director Carolina Orloff and Romancero Books director Jorge Garriz to celebrate the short-listed nomination for the Booker International Prize of Elena Knows.
Talk in English with some Spanglish involved.
Elena Knows books will be available for purchasing at the end of the event.
Elena Knows
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.
Claudia Piñeiro
As an author and scriptwriter for television, Claudia Piñeiro has won numerous national and international prizes, among them the renowned German LiBeraturpreis for Elena Knows and the prestigious Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize for Las grietas de Jara (A crack in the wall). She is best known for her crime novels which are bestsellers in Argentina, Latin American and round the world. Many of her novels have been adapted for the big screen. According to the prestigious newspaper La Nación, Claudia Piñeiro is the third most translated Argentinean author, after Borges and Cortázar. More recently, Piñeiro has become a very active figure in the fight for the legalisation of abortion in Argentina and for the legal recognition of writers as workers. Her fiction (as shown with Elena Knows) is stemmed in the detective novel but has recently turned increasingly political and ideologically committed.
Frances Riddle
Frances Riddle lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina where she works as a translator, writer, and editor. She holds an MA in Translation Studies from the University of Buenos Aires and a BA in Spanish Literature. Her book-length publications include A Simple Story by Leila Guerriero (New Directions, 2017); Bodies of Summer by Martín Felipe Castagnet (Dalkey Archive Press, 2017) and The Life and Deaths of Ethel Jurado (Hispabooks, 2017). Her translations, interviews, articles, and reviews have appeared in The White Review, Electric Literature, Berfrois, Catch and Release, Asymptote, The Short Story Project, The Portable Museum, Palabras Errantes, Ventana Latina, and The Argentina Independent, among others.
Charco Press
Charco means 'puddle' in Spanish. It is also a colloquialism used in some Latin American countries to refer to the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, cruzar el charco means 'crossing the puddle' and is a way of referring to when someone is going overseas, or travelling between continents.
Charco Press focuses on finding outstanding contemporary Latin American literature and bringing it to new readers in the English-speaking world. They aim to act as a cultural and linguistic bridge for you to be able to access a brand new world of fiction that has, until now, been missing from your reading list.
Romancero Books
Romancero Books is an online bookstore based in London.
We sell literature from Spain and Latin America. Our aim is to bring you the latest fiction, poetry, essays and graphic novels, with a special focus on literature written by women.
Working with selected large and small publishers from Spain and Latin America, we bring together a remarkable collection of books, including short stories and pocket books. Our catalogue covers themes such as Lorca, female writers from Generación del 27, writers in exile and diaspora, and new LGBTQ+ voices.