Anything you read about Cousins will begin with its startling catapult into public consciousness in 2007. Seemingly out of nowhere – at the age of 85 – Aurora Venturini stormed the Argentinean literary scene by winning a national newspaper’s prize for a debut novel. In fact, as you’d expect of an 85 year old, Venturini had been around for a while; by 2007 she had published over 30 novels. Her ‘overnight’ success was built on decades of writing and a lifetime of experiences rubbing shoulders with Borges, Sartre and other icons of the 20th century.

It is no small irony that Cousins itself is concerned with the ways women’s self- expression – whether artistic or sexual – is diminished, ignored, or brutally constrained. The novel’s narrator, Yuna, is a gifted artist whose unique vision is only recognised when a creepy art professor takes her under his wing. Yuna appears to have some kind of intellectual disability which means that, while she makes enough money from her art to help support her (highly dysfunctional) family, she remains an outsider.

Cousins is uncomfortable reading and it won’t be for everyone. Yuna’s voice – which is a mixture of pragmatism and naivety, crudeness and mysticism – captures the trials of the women in her family. They endure rapes, illegal abortions, and other relentless brutalities. But where patriarchal culture intentionally obscures these experiences through silence and shame, Yuna’s unusual voice throws them into sharp perspective. It is her unique way of telling the story which makes this twisted little tale unforgettable – and which marks Venturini as one of the most innovative literary forces in Argentina.