A Week in October A Novel

Clara Griffin, the beautiful wife of a successful architect, courageously confronts a life-threatening illness while recording her thoughts and experiences in her journal in the guise of a novel. What develops is a thinly veiled version of Clara's own life, her disappointment with her cold marriage, her reminiscences of childhood, and the death that seems to surround her. Her husband discovers the notebook and is stunned: How does she know that he had a mistress all these years? Is he really such a fatuous bore? Could it be true that his sick wife had a passionate love affair with one of his colleagues, right under his nose? Is this just a fictional storyhe asks himself, turning the pagesor his wife's very personal diary as she awaits death? A Week in Octoberis the first of Elizabeth Subercaseaux's novels to be translated into English. This extraordinary tale of erotic tension, deception, and resilience walks the line of suspense from page one to the unexpected, haunting ending that ponders the mysteries of a woman's heart, where truth is a lie and a lie is truth.

Elizabeth Subercaseaux was born in Chile, the great-great-granddaughter of the German composer Robert Schumann. She is the best-selling author of ten books. Her nonfiction includes Michelle, a biography of the first woman to be elected president of Chile, and the amusing feminist manifesto, The Ten Things a Chilean Woman Should Never Do. Subercaseaux lives in Pennsylvania.

Marina Harss’s translations include Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Stories from the City of God, Aldo Zargani’s For Solo Violin and, most recently, Alberto Moravia’s Conjugal Love. She is also a freelance dance writer and reviewer in New York City.