Luisa Valenzuela is one of the first outstanding Latin-American female authors to enjoy increasing readership and interest in the 1980s. Time and Newsweek have featured articles in which Valenzuela's name appeared next to the likes of Jorge Luis Borges, Carlos Fuentes, and Julio Cortázar; and her works are being analyzed in comparative literature, women's studies, and Latin-American studies courses. Valenzuela's varied literary production may be explored from different critical perspectives: traditional approaches show Valenzuela's mastery as a story-teller; sociological and Marxist critics refer to her sociopolitical awareness; feminist critics have discovered a distinctly feminine voice in the way Valenzuela articulates her fictional worlds.

Born in Buenos Aires on 26 November 1938, Luisa Valenzuela started writing at a very early age. But as a young child she seemed more inclined to math and the sciences, to the point that her language teacher once requested from her mother--the well-known writer...