Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro

This is a short, poweful, and compelling novel that chronicles several hours in the life of Elena, a frail old lady, on a quest through Buenos Aires. We meet her at home at the start of her day as she composes herself in readiness for a trip she’s planning to make. It merely involves a short walk, a train ride and a taxi trip, but as we’re to learn, Elena has a condition, severe Parkinson's disease, which makes even the simplest of actions a major endeavour. She is searching for the reason that her daughter, Rita, is dead. She was found hanging in a bell tower in a church, but Elena is sure that she did not do this to herself, and not in this place, so she is in search of answers. Elena knows that she hasn’t been told the whole truth, and her journey has as its goal a visit to someone she believes can help her reveal what really happened. The whole day builds towards this encounter, and we get ever closer to the moment when Elena will have her world turned upside down. The novella has many thoughts and questions about women's role in society, in the church, about autonomy and independence, and on family relations, illness, and death. It packs quite a punch into it's pages.