Claudia Piñeiro

The Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro was born in 1960 in Buenos Aires. After studying economics, she worked as a freelance and later permanent editor for various newspapers, magazines and radio stations.
As a writer, she made her debut in 2003 with the novel »Tuya« (2009; Eng. »All Yours«, 2012) about a wife who uncovers her husband’s infidelity and then witnesses his murder of his lover. Although she gives him an alibi afterwards, the husband doesn’t stop his affairs, and so she finally decides to take revenge. Piñeiro’s second novel, »Las viudas de los jueves« (2005; Eng. »Thursday Night Widows«, 2009), which won the Premio Clarín, was published in in German translation in 2010, the year Argentina was the guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and became a bestseller in more than a dozen countries. Piñeiro uses the genre of the detective novel for a relentless critique of society, vividly portraying the middle class’s fear of social decline, broken family relationships behind a glossy façade, and the effects of the economic crisis. »An agile novel, a ruthless dissection of a fast decaying society« (José Saramago). In 2009, Marcelo Piñeyro made a very popular film adaptation of the book in Argentina. Piñeiro’s third novel »Elena sabe« (2007; tr: Elena Knows), which deals with a symbiotic mother-daughter relationship, received the German LiBeraturpreis in 2010. The Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was awarded to the crime novel »Las grietas de Jara« (2009; Eng. »A Crack in the Wall«, 2013). The plot of »Un comunista en calzoncillos« (2013; tr: A Communist in his Underwear) takes the reader to Argentina in 1976: from the perspective of an adolescent girl, the author tells the story of the reality of life in this time between assimilation and rebellion, of the invasion of political reality into the small suburban world of a family, of duplicity and omnipresent suspicions. The homecoming novel »Una suerte pequeña« (2015; tr: A Little Luck) portrays a woman who fled her homeland after an accident, lived in Boston for twenty years as a Spanish teacher and finally dares a confrontation with the events of her past that she wanted to forget forever. In her most recent novel »Las maldiciones« (2017, tr: The Curses), Piñeiro plays with different perspectives and time frames and uses the devices of a crime story to illuminate the abuse of power and the lies in the young generation of politicians.
Piñeiro has been honored with numerous prizes for her literary work. In addition to her novels, she has also written plays and children’s books. The author lives in Buenos Aires.

Ganz die Deine
Unionsverlag
Zürich, 2009
[Ü: Peter Kultzen]
Die Donnerstagswitwen
Unionsverlag
Zürich, 2010
[Ü: Peter Kultzen]
Elena weiß Bescheid
Unionsverlag
Zürich, 2009
[Ü: Peter Kultzen]
Der Riss
Unionsverlag
Zürich, 2011
[Ü: Peter Kultzen]
Betibú
Unionsverlag
Zürich, 2013
[Ü: Peter Kultzen]
Ein Kommunist in Unterhosen
Unionsverlag
Zürich, 2014
[Ü: Peter Kultzen]
Ein wenig Glück
Unionsverlag
Zürich, 2016
[Ü: Stefanie Gerhold]
Der Privatsekretär
Unionsverlag
Zürich, 2019
[Ü: Peter Kultzen]