No One Said a Word

Luz Goldman, the narrator of No One Said a Word, grows up in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of Buenos Aires in the seventies when Argentina is ruled by a military dictatorship. But politics is only peripheral in Paula Varsavsky's debut novel. Luz is more concerned with her emotional abandonment by her divorced parents, and the sudden, unexpected death of her father which leaves her deeply bereft. Precocious, alienated, self-absorbed, Luz and her teenage friends lead disaffected, self-indulgent lives, taking drugs and engaging in casual sex. By sixteen, Luz is pregnant. All this is told without sentimentality, in a stark, wryly humorous voice that hides the rage lurking beneath. A memorable coming-of-age novel, No One Said a Word is an important addition to contemporary Latin American women's fiction.