Gijón, Jul 13 (EFE).- The Argentine writer María Inés Krimer, who is competing for the Dashiell Hammett prize for crime novels that will be awarded tomorrow, Friday, in Gijón’s Black Week, explained that she uses this genre “to focus in the reality”.
Krimer opted for this award with the work “A fin de temporada” (Revolver), the last of the trilogy starring the journalist Marcial Meyer.
After “Noxa”, about the effects of toxic agricultural products on health, and “Cupo”, about the union mafias in Argentina, both Hammett finalists in 2017 and 2019, Krimer has closed the trilogy of the reporter Meyer with a story about money laundering in the Uruguayan seaside resort of Punta del Este.
In “End of Season”, the journalist created by Krimer travels to Punta del Este, the favorite place for the rich Argentines to spend the summer, to investigate a family’s secret about the origin of their fortune and uncovers a money laundering plot. capitals.
The Argentine writer, winner of the 2002 National Endowment for the Arts Award for her first novel “Singer’s daughter”, competes for the 2023 Hammett with Claudia Piñeiro, with “El tiempo de las moscas”; Imanol Caneyada, with “Lithium”; Alicia Giménez Bartlett, with “La presidenta”, and Diego Ameixeiras, with “El deer y la sombra”.
In a press conference held this Thursday at the Gijón festival, Krimer said that the crime genre, which differs from detective literature, allows him to “put the focus on reality” and expose conflicts and social tensions.
The traditional police genre with an official or a detective as the protagonist does not work in Argentina because “it is very difficult to build a credible story” about the investigation of a crime by someone linked to the security forces, he has assured.
According to Krimer, no one would believe the impartiality of an Argentine police officer investigating, given the level of corruption in the institution, he has highlighted.
The author has denied having been inspired by the murder of photojournalist José Luis Cabezas, which occurred in the Buenos Aires town of General Madariaga on January 25, 1997, when he was covering the summer vacations of famous personalities in Punta del Este.
Cabezas’s crime became the greatest emblem of the fight of the Argentine press for freedom of expression and had repercussions in the change of the cabinet of President Carlos Menen and in the defeat of the Justicialista Party in the immediately following legislative and presidential elections.
Krimer has affirmed that his novel can refer to this or any other crime that takes place in a glamorous environment on which little confessable interests are hidden.