Translation Rights TQE / Authors / Piñera, Virgilio

Virgilio Piñera was born in Cárdenas, Cuba in 1912, and he died in Havana in 1979 shunned by Castro’s regime. He lived as an exile in Argentina for twelve years, where he became good friends with Witold Gombrowicz, among others. It was there, in 1952, that his first novel La carne de René (René’s Flesh) was initially published. Apart from being a poet, he was also well-known as a playwright, especially for his works: Electra Garrigó, En esa zona helada (In That Frozen Zone), Falsa alarma (False Alarm) and Dos viejos pánicos (Two Old Fears). As a prose writer, his most popular works were the collection of short stories Cuentos fríos (Chilly Tales) in 1956, and his novels Pequeñas maniobras (Small  Manoeuvres) in 1963, and Presiones y diamantes (Pressures and Diamonds) in 1967. An anthology of his short stories has recently been published in Spain.