An agile novel written in a language perfectly pitched for the subject
matter, a ruthless dissection of a fast decaying society--José
Saramago, Nobel Prize winner
The English translation of hit novel Las Viudas de Los Jueves!
"Piñeiro's clever U.S. debut.. . illuminates the hypocrisies of the
country's upper classes after 9/11."--Publishers Weekly
"Piñeiro is particularly skilful at exposing the social forces
undermining Argentine society, and the fragility of personal
relationships. We learn the surprising truth of the three men's death in
the final chapter; the build-up to it is riveting."--The Times
(London)
Piñeiro builds up tension through banal, domestic details and the
accretion of despair in everyday marital and professional struggles.
There may be bloody murder at the centre of this novel, but the dystopia
portrayed is an indictment not solely of an assassin but of Argentina's
class structure and the willful blindness of its petty
bourgeoisie.--Times Literary Supplement
"A razor-sharp psychological and social portrait not only of Argentina,
but of the afluent Western world as a whole."--Rosa Montero
Three bodies lie at the bottom of a swimming pool in a gated country
estate near Buenos Aires. It's Thursday night at the magnificent Scaglia
house. Behind the locked gates, shielded from the crime, poverty, and
filth of the people on the streets, the Scaglias and their friends hide
lives of infidelity, alcoholism, and abusive marriage. Claudia
Piñeiro's novel eerily foreshadowed a criminal case that generated a
scandal in the Argentine media. But this is more than a story about
crime. The suspense is a byproduct of Piñeiro's hand at crafting a
psychological portrait of a professional class that lives beyond its
means and leads secret lives of deadly stress and despair. It takes
place during the post-9/11 economic meltdown in Argentina, but it is a
universal story that will resonate among credit-crunched readers of
today.
The film of Thursday Night Widows, by Argentine New Wave and
award-winning director Marcelo Piñeyro is coming soon with trailers
available online.
Claudia Piñeiro was a journalist, playwright, and television
scriptwriter and in 1992 won the prestigious Pléyade Annual Journalism
Award. She has more recently turned to fiction and is the author of
literary crime novels that are all bestsellers in Latin America and have
been translated into four languages. This novel won the Clarin Prize for
fiction and is her first title to be available in English.
