David's Reviews > Elena Knows

Elena Knows is the first work by Claudia Piñeiro to be published by Charco Press. Piñeiro is a well regarded writer of crime fiction in her native Argentina and prior English translations of her work were marketed as such. But what’s so intriguing about Piñeiro is that crime fiction is just an outer layer - a MacGuffin of sorts - a vehicle through which Piñeiro tells a compelling story, often grounded in her work as an activist. Elena Knows is no different. This work explores disability, aging, memory, religiosity, suicide, and, ultimately, abortion with an admirable mixture of sensitivity and conviction. The entire work is less than 200 pages and enfolds in a single day while the prematurely aged Elena, suffering from advanced Parkinson’s, haltingly traverses outer Buenos Aires in an effort to solve the mystery of her daughter’s death. Flashbacks and memories are seamlessly woven into the present. At its heart, the novel shows how dogma is used as a weapon to control others, yet disregarded by those wielding it when their own tragedy strikes. It is a subject that was of particular salience when this was first published in Argentina and is now tragically of utmost importance in the United States. Nicely translated by Frances Riddle.