Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Letters from Latin America: August 27, 2024
LEO BOIX reviews a noir novel featuring flies, a fumigation company and two female ex-convicts by Argentinian Claudia Pineiro, an anthology by contemporary Latin American writers and collections of poetry by Chilean Gabriela Mistral and Puerto Rican Irizelma Robles

“I SEE a fly. A fly doesn’t exist, fluttering in front of my left eye. And I like saying it that way, almost a declaration of principles; I, Ines Experey, see a fly.”

This is how Time of the Flies (Charco Press) by Argentinian writer Claudia Pineiro begins. The novel delves into female friendship, motherhood, and the boundaries of crime fiction, taking it to new heights.

It features flies in various forms and intersperses the main narrative with a chorus of female voices in the Greek tradition of Euripides’ Medea. These voices debate concepts of maternity, sexuality, human relationships and feminism.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
SELF-DETERMINATION: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro posters cover the walls in downtown Caracas, Venezuela
Features / 24 October 2025
24 October 2025

To defend Puerto Rico’s right to peace is to defend Venezuela’s right to exist, argues MICHELLE ELLNER

boix
Letters from Latin America / 23 September 2025
23 September 2025

A ghost story by Mexican Ave Barrera, a Surrealist poetry collection by Peruvian Cesar Moro, and a manifesto-poem on women’s labour and capitalist havoc by Peruvian Valeria Roman Marroquin

Elizabeth Bishop in 1964 in Petropolis were she lived for 15 years with architect Lota de Macedo Soares / Pic: Brazilian National Archives/CC
Books / 26 May 2025
26 May 2025

FIONA O'CONNOR recommends a biography that is a beautiful achievement and could stand as a manifesto for the power of subtlety in art

boix
Letters from Latin America / 20 May 2025
20 May 2025

LEO BOIX introduces a bold novel by Mapuche writer Daniela Catrileo, a raw memoir from Cuban-Russian author Anna Lidia Vega Serova, and powerful poetry by Mexican Juana Adcock