Cousins

By: Aurora Venturini, Kit Maude - translator, Mariana Enriquez - introduction

Narrated by: Sol Madariaga

At the age of eighty-five, Aurora Venturini stunned Argentine fans when her darkly funny and formally daring novel, Cousins (Las primas), won Página/12's New Novel Award. She had already written more than forty books, but it was only then, in 2007, that she was widely recognized as a paradigm-shifting voice in Spanish-language literature.

Cousins, widely regarded as Venturini's masterpiece, is the story of four women from an impoverished, dysfunctional family in La Plata, Argentina, who are forced to suffer through a series of ordeals, including illegal abortions, miscarriages, sexual abuse, disfigurement, and murder, narrated by a daughter whose success as a painter offers her a chance to achieve economic independence.

Neighborhood mythologies, family, female sexuality, vengeance, and social mobility through art are explored and scrutinized in the unmistakable voice of Yuna—a voice whose unconventional style can be candid, brutal, sharp, and utterly breathtaking. With the translation of Cousins into several languages for the first time, Aurora Venturini is now being discovered internationally and championed as a major voice in Latin American literature.

Contains mature themes.

©2007 Liliana Viola, Heir of Aurora Venturini; English translation copyright 2023 by Kit Maude; Introduction copyright 2020 by Mariana Enriquez (P)2023 Tantor