Detrás de las altas paredes perimetrales, más allá de los portones reforzados por barreras y flanqueados por garitas de vigilancia, se encuentra Altos de la Cascada. Afuera, la ruta, la barriada popular de Santa María de los Tigrecitos, la autopista, la ciudad, el resto del mundo. En Altos de la Cascada viven familias que llevan un mismo estilo de vida y que quieren mantenerlo cueste lo que cueste. Allí, en el country, un grupo de amigos se reúne semanalmente lejos de las miradas de sus hijos, sus empleadas domésticas y sus esposas, quienes, excluidas del encuentro varonil, se autodenominan, bromeando, “las viudas de los jueves”. Pero una noche la rutina se quiebra y ese hecho permite descubrir, en un país que se desmorona, el lado oscuro de una vida “perfecta”.

Accident, Suicide, or Murder?
Review of the Bitter Lemon Press paperback edition (2009) translated from the Spanish language original "Las viudas de los jueves" (2005) by Miranda France

Thursday Night Widows starts out with what is a common plot device in crime and mystery novels, the suspicious or doubtful accident. It does not follow the standard tropes of that situation at all however.

After the apparent accidental deaths of 3 of 4 Thursday night men's night partyers, 3 one-night 'widows' become permanently so. We learn the backstory of the 4 couples, primarily through the flashbacks of the 4th wife Virginia Guevara, who works as a real estate agent for the exclusive gated community Cascade Heights which is the setting for the story. Virginia knows almost all of the secrets of her neighbours, but not the ones that her husband Ronie knows of the tragic night's events. Virginia keeps a red notebook of her observations, which is a bit of a tease in that you will think that some revelation will come from it. In hindsight, it was more of a MacGuffin.

The novel is a very unconventional mystery, as there is no detective or investigation as such. The truth is revealed only in the final few chapters when all surviving witnesses come to light. The flashbacks serve more to create an antipathy and disassociation from the community, as pretty much everyone involved is selfish, self-centred and unpleasant. It still makes for compelling reading as Piñeiro peels back the onion layers of the surface personalities of the characters.

Another unique feature to this book was that interspersed with the 1st person SINGULAR viewpoint of Virginia, there are many chapters written in the 1st person PLURAL, as if the Cascade Heights community as a whole was telling the story. Off the top of my head, I can't remember another novel that does that, except for Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End (2007) which does it (i.e. the First Person PLURAL) for the entire book and is a terrific black comedy about office cubicle life. That book was from my pre-reviewing days, but I remember enjoying it so much that I really should re-read and review it now as well.

Argentinean novelist Claudia Piñeiro is known primarily as a literary crime novelist and several of her books in that genre have been translated into English by Miranda France and published by Bitter Lemon Press. The first of these was Thursday Night Widows (orig. 2005/trans. 2009), which was followed by All Yours (orig. 2005/trans. 2012), A Crack in the Wall (orig. 2009/trans. 2013), and Betty Boo (orig. 2010/trans. 2016).

I also recently read and reviewed Piñeiro's Elena Knows (orig. 2007/trans. 2021) translated by Frances Riddle and published by Charco Press.

Other Reviews
Review/Entire Plot Summary (SPOILERS!) at Las viudas de los jueves by Consuelo Murgia, August 26, 2018 (Spanish language, turn on web translator if required).

Trivia and Link
Thursday Night Widows was adapted from its Spanish language original in 2009 as the same titled film by Argentinean director & screenwriter Marcelo Piñeyro. You can see the trailer here (In Spanish language without subtitles). ( )

Alla periferia di Buenos Aires, dietro alti muri perimetrali, al di là di cancelli rinforzati e affiancati dalle garitte della vigilanza, si trova il complesso residenziale di lusso Altos de la Cascada. Fuori, la strada, la baraccopoli di Santa Maria de los Tigrecitos, l’autostrada, la città, il resto del mondo. Ad Altos de la Cascada vivono famiglie facoltose che hanno lo stesso stile di vita e che vogliono mantenerlo, costi quel che costi. In quest’oasi dorata di pace e tranquillità, un gruppo di amici si riunisce una volta alla settimana lontano dalla vista dei figli, delle donne di servizio e soprattutto delle mogli che, escluse da questi incontri virili, si autonominano, ironicamente, “le vedove del giovedì”. Ma una notte la routine si spezza rivelando il lato oscuro di una vita “perfetta”.

En Altos de la Cascada viven familias que llevan un mismo estilo de vida y que quieren mantenerlo cueste lo que cueste. Allí, en el country, un grupo de amigos se reúne semanalmente lejos de las miradas de sus hijos, sus empleadas domésticas y sus esposas, quienes excluidas del encuentro varonil, se autodenominan, bromeando, «las viudas de los jueves». Pero una noche la rutina se quiebra y ese hecho permite descubrir, en un país que se desmorona, el lado oscuro de una vida perfecta. El paraíso está a punto de estallar.

Las Viudas De Los Jueves

Detrás de las altas paredes perimetrales, más allá de los portones reforzados por barreras y flanqueados por garitas de vigilancia, se encuentra Altos de la Cascada. Afuera, la ruta, la barriada popular de Santa María de los Tigrecitos, la autopista, la ciudad, el resto del mundo.
En Altos de la Cascada viven familias que llevan un mismo estilo de vida y que quieren mantenerlo cueste lo que cueste. Allí, en el country, un grupo de amigos se reúne semanalmente lejos de las miradas de sus hijos, sus empleadas domésticas y sus esposas, quienes, excluidas del encuentro varonil, se autodenominan, bromeando, 'Las viudas de los jueves'.
Pero una noche la rutina se quiebra y ese hecho permite descubrir, en un país que se desmorona, el lado oscuro de una vida 'perfecta'.