Claudia Piñeiro explored the social and political background of her new novel, "La muerte ajena" (The Death of Another).

The elderly gentleman, dressed in a wine-colored velvet suit, stopped in front of the stage of the Clarín / Ñ cultural space and stared fixedly at the writer Claudia Piñeiro , who at that moment, on the first afternoon, was being interviewed by the literary critic Alejandra Rodríguez Ballester about her new novel, La muerte ajena (Other Death) (Alfaguara), at the 49th Buenos Aires International Book Fair . “Sir, would you like to move over there so you’re not in the way?” the author invited him. And when the man finally moved forward, clearing the area, she added: “Excuse me, but I couldn’t see you when I was speaking and it was uncomfortable . Besides, I was afraid .” Welcome to the world of Claudia Piñeiro.

The author who won the Clarín Novela Prize twenty years ago with Las viudas de los jueves (Alfaguara), revisited that story and its enormous impact in the present day: “Sometimes, a novel tells something that people are waiting to be told . The novel ends in December 2001, but the story takes a journey through the 1990s and some events that predicted that it would end the way it did . And along the way, I remember that throughout the chapters I would choose certain events that weren't economic and that referred to other factors worth addressing, and that, in the case of the 1990s, were very clear,” she explained.

Thus, in Las viudas de los jueves (Thursday's Widows ), a journalist was murdered in Pinamar or an arms factory exploded. "It wasn't the economic aspect, but these were events that could have warned us that this was going to end badly. And I think there's a parallel with the present because we immediately say, 'Oh, well, inflation is under control,' and it seems like we should be happy with that. But there are other things that are seen and minimized in light of that economic achievement."

Piñeiro said that he doesn't usually reread his own books, but in the case of Las viudas de los jueves , he did so thanks to the adaptation to the series format that was made in Mexico: " I thought, how much similarity there is in some of the events portrayed in this novel from 20 years ago and situations that I see today."

Regarding her new book, Una muerte ajena (A Death of Another ), she explained that the idea was born, as often happens, with an image: “That triggering image stays in my head, I start to think about who these characters are, how they came, where they go. And the story emerges from there,” she said. “It seems to me that the triggering image of this novel, which has a lot to do with the cover, which shows a woman falling into the void, is related to a real case that had recently happened in Buenos Aires with a Brazilian girl, who fell from a window in Recoleta, and that feeling that it is not the first time in Argentina that a woman has fallen from a window. It seemed to me like it was something worth exploring .”

One of the novel's characters is a high-class sexual escort , and therefore, the book addresses the issue of prostitution. Rodríguez Ballester asked the writer what her position was regarding the debate the topic generates within feminism: " The debate is between abolitionist and non-abolitionist groups, " she explained. "Abolitionists ask for an end to prostitution because they understand that trafficking in women is behind it. And non-abolitionists say no, that there isn't always trafficking in women, because a sex worker can be someone who decides to work in that field instead of something else. In that sense, I think it's an open debate, and it's an uncomfortable one for feminism as well . The protagonist of the novel, who is a journalist, raises these questions and doesn't close them," she pointed out.

Piñeiro shared that she, like her character, is in that same place: “ I find it hard to wrap my head around those questions . I can understand that maybe it’s not a free decision, but it’s probably not a free decision to go clean the bathrooms at Retiro station either. It’s what someone can work in, and the only thing that makes these jobs undignified is the sexual aspect, when in reality there are very undignified jobs that aren’t put under that microscope .”

Juliana, the character created by the writer, is an escort and decides that this job is better than any other. “She enters that world in a completely naive and accidental way, following a fight with her parents,” Rodríguez Ballester replied, before asking her about the generational characteristics of the girl imagined for this novel.

“After the pandemic, the future seems very uncertain . A teenager who has to think about a career, who wonders what it's going to be like, how to get a job, how that job allows them to save up for a house, sees it as something difficult. And for our generation, that was faster; at least we could buy a house. Today, it's not so easy. So, I think certain activities have emerged that young people are turning to. For boys, they're related to cryptocurrencies or online gambling. And for girls, it's with this type of escort work or Only Fans ,” she exemplified.

Piñeiro asserted that the world has changed, "and it doesn't offer them a way of working that will allow them to follow the path we followed. It's a different reality. And we need to understand what's going through their minds. I understand the desperation in the face of an uncertain future," he added.

The Death of Another is a challenging novel because it presents different versions of what happened to the young woman who fell into the void . “The novel has several points of view. I've often worked with different points of view, but in the previous novels, everyone looked at the same reality from their own perspective; in other words, reality was the same. In The Death of Another , it's reality that's in question, ” he explained.

Piñeiro explained that during the reading , it's hard to know which narrator to trust . "And that also has to do with the current world situation, in which we ourselves are faced with different versions of something that's happening, and we don't know which one is true. We have to construct the story, but it's a lot of work ," he emphasized.

Preview 💥 @claudiapineiro boldly tackles a chillingly topical issue, and through fiction, lays bare one of the darkest, most intimate, and oldest ties: that of VIP prostitution with the powers that be.

📌 Starting May 1. pic.twitter.com/0ZSUqkL1rz

— Penguin Argentina (@penguinlibrosar) April 24, 2025

Toward the end of the interview, the writer referred to the so-called cultural battle that, she says, President Javier Milei is waging: " It seems to me that those who need to react are those who support the government and who honestly disagree with the President's claim that journalists should be hated ," she expressed.

And he continued: "I wonder, do all those people agree with him constantly attacking female journalists and some male journalists by name? Do they agree with the fact that he has denounced three journalists? Don't you think it's serious that this is happening? Or is the drop in inflation enough to sweep away all these other issues? I think it's good that people who voted for him are starting to see that there are certain things that can't be ignored. You don't need to insult for the economy to function. You don't need to degrade a journalist for the economy to function," he stated.