I can't think of another novel that has so deeply and intimately drawn me into the experience of someone living with a debilitating illness. Elena is in a late stage of Parkinson's disease where every physical action is timed around when her pills can be taken as these allow her a limited amount of movement. In the interim periods her body refuses to respond to messages from her brain and, even with the pills, normal actions which we take for granted are an enormous struggle. This is especially

Deservedly shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2022Another book that thoroughly deserves its place on the International Booker list, and one which could easily be a winner. It is a very cleverly constructed story of three women. The main protagonist is Elena, who suffers from an aggressive form of Parkinson's disease which means that she can only walk after medication. She has been cared for by her daughter Rita, whose body has recently been found hanging from a church bell tower. Ele...

... you're going to have to be your mother's mother, Rita, because Elena we know is going to be a baby. This is a slow-burn of a novella but the last third packs a real emotional punch, especially for anyone of that age when caring for aged parents is an increasing practical and emotional burden. Dare I say, this role of caregiver still seems to fall disproportionately on daughters and this is the first fiction I've read which tackles the issue head on, with few qualms. There are also

“Elena Knows”, by Claudia Pineiro, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize….. I LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT IT!At only 147 pages….it’s sleek contemporary page turning prose strings words together in the most invigorating way…..I found it explosive - breathless - and very exciting to read the sentences & dialogue. They are haunting, but brilliantly alive! I LOVE THESE TYPES OF BOOKS: …not too long, …the piercing fresh writing was as excitingly suspenseful as was the inquiry of a murder/ or/...

Now shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker AwardCaregivers are often the unsung heroes of society, spending their time keeping the vulnerable alive and very rarely getting much credit. These jobs are often difficult and underpaid, but many caregivers receive no compensation such as those caring for elderly parents or mothers. Elena Knows by international superstar crime writer, Claudia Piñeiro from Argentina, is a book that shook me to the core and became an impassioned ode to understandi...

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,

Very pleased to see this book not just longlisted but now shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2022!After two rather sluggish parts, the third section of the book was absolutely brilliant and tackled themes like abortion, euthanasia and the influence of the church on societyThey could’ve told you a dozen times what it feels like to have Parkinson’s, in precise, graphic words, sparing no details, but you only knew the truth once the disease was inside your body. You can imagine the pain...

Shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker PrizeNow he understood her, who had lived beside him so many years and been loved but never understood. You were never truly together with one you loved until the person in question was dead and actually inside you.From the epigraph, by Thomas Bernhard, Gargoyles, as translated by Richard and Clara Winston'Elena Knows' is the translation by Francis Riddle of 'Elena sabe' by Claudia Piñeiro and published by Charco Press, whose mission "focuses on find...

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2022Told over the course of a single day with flashbacks to an event that occurred twenty years prior, this novel follows Elena who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease as she attempts to uncover the truth of her daughter’s death. Piñeiro does such an excellent job of putting you inside Elena’s experience as someone whose body is rapidly deteriorating due to her illness. It raises so many questions about bodily autonomy, caregiving, imposed

FINAL REVIEW: these were initial thoughts: If this doesn’t make the International Booker Prize shortlist, I will riot.And these are my final thoughts: Right now I’m calling this as the winner of this year’s International Booker Prize.The main premise: Elena, a woman in her 60s, who suffers from Parkinson’s, is on a mission to find out what happened to her daughter, Rita. The police have ruled the tragic death as suicide, but Elena believes otherwise. The title of this book comes into play in sev...

3.5⭐️ rounded up. This book deals with myriad issues - motherhood, caretaking, disability, abortion, and marriage. The majority of the book the reader is inside Elena’s head, listening to all her thoughts. Part of my issues with the book may be that I just don’t enjoy that kind of narrative. It’s a sad book, but it also deals harshly with realities of everyday life. At the end, it’s mainly about that old adage of not judging someone else until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. It makes this p...

April 7, 2022 Update Now shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.March 10, 2022 Update Now longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.Knowing ElenaReview of the Charco Press paperback edition (July 2021) translated from the Spanish language original Elena sabe (October 2007)Argentinean novelist Claudia Piñeiro is known primarily as a literary crime novelist and several of her books in that genre have been previously translated into English and published by Bitter Lemon Press....

This was intelligent, spiky and claustrophobic, but a touch too didactic for me. Literature should be a window, a means of looking at the world, a wrestling with questions, not a hammer with which to hit the reader over the head. Rating: 7/10

*spoilers in paragraph 5*Claudia Piñeiro is known, in Argentina, for her crime novels, which are bestsellers and have been adapted. Elena Knows, however is what I call a meta crime novel as the crime itself is a metaphor for many other subjects.The titular Elena is a 65 year old who is suffering from Parkinson’s, in fact she sees it as a second person who is living inside of her, at times Elena calls her affliction ‘herself’, She is taken care of by her daughter Rita, who is in her mid 40’s.One

Trigger warnings. And, if you're reading this, pardon my language. Because holy fuck. This book kicked me in the chest. Hard. It takes place over just one day when Elena, a 65-year-old suffering from debilitating Parkinson's, is working to further the investigation into who killed her daughter (who was found hanging in the church belfry). Officially, the ruling is suicide, but "Elena knows" that wouldn't be the case. She is determined to push the police to investigate further.This story takes pl...