A Little Luck - by Claudia Piñeiro (Paperback)

About the Book

A woman returns home to confront the past, a family, and the reverberations of a death that she had abandoned decades before.

Book Synopsis

From the author of Elena Knows, finalist for the 2022 International Booker Prize

20 years after a shocking accident, Mary Lohan returns to the Buenos Aires suburb she escaped in a fugue of guilt and isolation. She is not the same--not her name or voice, not even the color of her eyes. The neighborhood looks different too, but she's still the same woman and it's still the same place, and as the past erupts into view, they slowly collide.

A Little Luck is the story about the debilitating weight of lies, the messy line between bravery and cowardice, and the tragedies, big and small, that can ripple out from a single decisive event. In a place she had determined to forget forever, both anticipated encounters and unanticipated revelations show her, and us, that sometimes life is neither fate nor chance: perhaps it's nothing more than a little luck.

Review Quotes

"A striking meditation on loss and the search for home." --Publishers Weekly

"A moving story about the courage to face the past and earn a chance at redemption." --Kirkus

"An investigation into the limits of narrative, Claudia Piñeiro's latest cements the writer as a giant of Argentine literature. (5 stars)" --The Skinny

"A Little Luck is a thrilling read, a page turner, a mystery, a psychological deep dive into character." --Julia Alvarez, author of HOW THE GARCÍA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS and IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES

"Piñeiro excels at creating poignant, emotive fiction which aims for both heart and head." --Jeremy Garber, Powell's Bookshop

"I highly recommend A Little Luck by Claudia Piñeiro." --Harvard Bookstore

"Piñeiro is quickly establishing herself to English readers as a novelist capable of utter devastation, but she consistently offers a little hope in the dark." --The Big Issue

"A must-read." --Morning Star

"Piñeiro once again demonstrates her expertise in suspense and intrigue." --Sounds & Colours

"Examines the plight of those who, for no fault of their own, are abandoned by the community and shunned by society." --The Arts Fuse

"The writing and pacing are superb...there's not a dull moment to be had." --Tony's Reading List

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Praise for Claudia Piñeiro

International Booker Prize (Shortlist)
Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award - Fiction (Shortlist)
Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Translation Prize (Shortlist)
LiBeraturpreis (Winner)
The Barbellion Prize (Longlist)

"Short and stylish...a piercing commentary on mother-daughter relationships, the indignity of bureaucracy, the burdens of caregiving and the impositions of religious dogma on women." --New York Times

"A lyrical portrait of a woman unable to grieve...incisive commentary on Catholic society's control of women's bodies." --Publishers Weekly

"A murder mystery with a twist." --The Globe and Mail

"Its true brilliance, though, is in how it flips Elena's insular daily reality into a much broader commentary on how the hypocrisy of Catholic society manifests in the lives and judgments of ordinary people. A highly accomplished and original novel, translated with great sensitivity to tone and atmosphere by Frances Riddle." --Irish Times

"A gloriously taut and haunting tale...astonishingly assured." --Denise Mina, author of GODS AND BEASTS and THE LONG DROP

"A fascinating, twisty tale." --The Listener

"Contending with sorrow and illness, as well as the burdens of caregiving, bodily horrors, and forced presumptions in the lives of women, Elena Knows is a bold, visceral work of fiction." --Jeremy Garber, Powell's Bookshop

"[Piñeiro's] words work a kind of magic only very masterful literature does." --Lucy Writers

"In Elena, Piñeiro has created an uncommon Virgil who reminds readers of the damaging and even deadly effects of imposing one's convictions on others." --Necessary Fiction

"A subtle and skilful exploration of how far women have the right to control their own bodies." --The Conversation

"Riveting, revelatory and brilliantly imaginative." --Lonesome Reader

"Subverting genre expectations." --The Arts Fuse

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Dublin Literary Award (Longlist)
Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Translation Prize (Longlist)

"This propulsive novel lays bare the struggles of living under patriarchy." --Publishers Weekly

"Piñeiro is delightfully successful at marrying the joy of a crime novel with the intelligence, and deep characterization, of literary fiction." --Words Without Borders

"The vibrancy of Piñeiro's writing is never lost in translation in Frances Riddle's nuanced and meticulously crafted English version." --Sounds & Colours

"For fans of crime novels, revenge, and translated novels!" --Book Riot

"Hard-hitting and direct." --The Times Literary Supplement

"Entertains and provokes in equal measure." --Southwest Review

"Time of the Flies is orchestral: a page turner that is also a crime novel, a thriller, a meditation on feminism, our choices, our lack of choices. As Piñeiro unpacks her Pandora box of stories, voices, preoccupations, characters, you wonder, how on earth will she weave them together? Not that you care--her ability to be everybody and everything, including flies, carries you along. An absorbing read, for sure, and oh what a satisfying pleasure to see all the pieces come together--painful satisfaction, because then, you know, the novel will soon be over." --Julia Alvarez, author of HOW THE GARCÍA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS and IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES

"The novel portrays the new life of the main character and the culture shock she experiences on encountering a world that is much more feminist than the one she remembers, when she only knew a single way to be a woman." --elDiarioAR

"A detective novel that corroborates this writer's experience with the genre and her capacity to travel to the darkest corners of the human soul, always from multiple perspectives." --Hermeneuta Revista Cultural

"As they try to rebuild their lives on release from prison, Inés and Manca experience ups and downs that show them that love is not always what we call love and that we do not always feel what we really think we feel. In the realm of the emotions, there are no absolute truths either." --Tiempo Argentino

"It is a stimulating exercise to imagine the challenges characters who embody a particular period would face in the present day. This is what Piñeiro attempts here, and hits the nail on the head with Inés, who resonates with irreverent questions about the possibility of being contemporary and wholly genuine at the same time." --La Nación

"Piñeiro interweaves the stories of Inés and Manca in a kind of suburban Thelma and Louise, with a chorus of women who debate subjects such as the achievements of feminism, inclusive language and abortion, among other matters" --Página/12

"Like fabric, this book is woven from different textualities. Intermittently, a chorus appears who comment, in the style of Ancient Greek theatre, on what is happening. (...) Combined with these voices are texts from well-known figures: Rebecca Solnit, Rita Segato, Judith Butler, Vivian Gornick, Marguerite Duras..." --Infobae

"The intellectual, artistic and creative challenges expressed in Time of the Flies confront us with the destruction of the archetypes of specific periods, where the resistances and oppositions are intense and come from all sides." --Diario Cine y Literatura CL

"Once inside (as you will find out for yourself) there is no let-up." --El Español

"Family ties, social prejudice, institutions and defiance of authority are just some of the themes Claudia Piñeiro addresses so masterfully." --Página/12

"Cathedrals challenges us as a society. It obliges us to stop and think. The text demands that we discard our indifference." --Infobae

"The plot is kept taut by its silences (...) The ever skilful Piñeiro appears to have invented a unique genre, the family crime novel, where everything stays in the home." --La Nación

"A harrowing book that casts a revelatory light on the uncomfortable truth about clandestine abortions in Argentina." --El Mundo

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About the Author

Claudia Piñeiro is the author of ElenaKnows, shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize. A best-selling Argentinian writer born in Buenos Aires in 1960, she is one of the most widely translated contemporary authors working in Spanish.

Frances Riddle has translated numerous Spanish-language authors, including Isabel Allende and Claudia Piñeiro. Her translation of Elena Knows was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022, and Theatre of War by Andrea Jeftanovic received an English PEN Award in 2020. She lives in Buenos Aires.