A review by sarahmatthews
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro

Tr. Frances Riddle

read as e-book, using a mix of electronic Braille and TTS

Charco Press

Pub. 2021

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I heard about this book when it was longlisted for the Barbellion Prize which promotes literature that concerns issues around illness/disability. The author is known as a crime writer but I knew going in not to categorise it.

We follow Elena, who’s in her 60s and has Parkinson’s, as she goes through her day and we learn that her daughter, Rita, has died and she’s determined to prove that it was murder, not suicide as the police believe.

Elena’s day is not straightforward as even though she has a very fixed idea she must get to Isabel for help (a woman she met briefly 20 years ago) her disability reduces her mobility and everything takes so much longer. Her movements are tied to her medication so she has to carefully pace herself in order to get to the train station, conserving enough to control her body to get through the journey before needing to take another pill. It’s a juggling act she’s learnt over recent years and now thatRita has died she’s all alone in the world.

Piñeiro has structured the book around Elena’s doses of medication which is a brilliant way to weave in the idea of ‘crip time’, something that many disabled people recognise in their lives. This is powerfully explored, showing the frustrations Elena has about not being able to hold her hed up straight and the difficulty she has in walking.

“even though she knows that her time isn’t measured with clocks she looks at her watch; it’s more than an hour until her next pill…her time that isn’t time measured with clocks has begun to run out like sand slipping between her fingers, like water, and, elena knows, she won’t be able to get up off that couch until after she takes her next pill”

Themes of motherhood, identity, religion and who controls a woman’s body are also all woven into this emotional and affecting novel.