Elena Knows

Product Information

It’s not that our version is the correct one, but what I cannot tolerate is that the European one is the correct one. More recently, Piñeiro has become a very active figure in the fight for the legalisation of abortion in Argentina. She holds a BA in Spanish Language Literature from Louisiana State University and an MA in Translation Studies from the University of Buenos Aires. While not much actually happens—Elena travels across the city to someone’s home as well as intermittent flashbacks to her tumultuous relationship with her daughter Rita and the aftermath of Rita’s body being discovered—the structure of the book keeps the tension high as it slowly teases out details. This novel was similar: I wanted to bring together parts that didn’t necessarily feel like they belonged together.

Do you sit down and map out the plot, or do you just start writing and see where the book takes you?

Her beautifully drawn descriptions of endless hours on public transport were Daas’s way of exploring a commute she once considered “normal”, then grew to see as an “injustice”.

the exploration of what we owe to each other, and especially of what women owe, what it means to be a mother and a daughter and if we have any choice in being either, was excellent and — to my experience — one of a kind. No one who will ask after her health or give her their belated condolences over the death of her daughter. Rita also possessed some conservative values which caused conflicts and harm to people she encountered.

In the penultimate chapter, Carrera rails against the tyranny of individualism and laments that rationality, compassion and generosity are fading away; all of which is undermining our societal structures and putting the world in “great danger”. I’d like to see Elena Knows surrounded by books by other authors writing in Spanish who have been, or are, on the Booker list: The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez, Paradais by Fernanda Melchor, Die, My Loveby Ariana Harwicz. In this short but impactful read, we follow Elena, an ageing woman suffering from advanced Parkinson’s. When I was a kid my mother worked as an elementary school librarian and my grandmother had been a librarian and professor of children’s literature so our house was filled with kids’ books. She carefully planned a trip to a woman’s house who should be able to help Elena find the truth about her daughter, Rita.