Pushkin nets urgent debut from Rodríguez

Pushkin Vertigo has scooped Urgent Causes, a psychological crime novel that "packs a punch", by Argentinian journalist and debut author Paula Rodríguez.

The novel follows a murder suspect who disappears after a train crash in Buenos Aires. The police try to track him down while the media spreads rumours about the case. 

Pushkin said: "Urgent Causes is a literary noir about class and identity in Argentina, written with the urgency of journalism. This is a deeply psychological crime novel about the network of those involved in criminal activity and has been shortlisted for the Silverio Cañada Award 2021."

Commissioning editor Harriet Wade acquired world English rights from María Reina De la Puebla at PRH Grupo Editorial. Urgent Causes will publish autumn 2022.

Wade said: "Urgent Causes combines the furious pace of a thriller with big themes such as the systemic corruption of the media, the pressures of the working class and the consequences of criminality. It really packs a punch and I’m thrilled to be publishing this distinctive noir on the Vertigo list."

Rodríguez is a journalist, editor, writer, comedian, ghostwriter and feminist activist. She worked for 25 years in magazine editorial offices and was part of the founding team of some of them. Urgent Causes is her first novel.

She said: "I am really glad to publish Urgent Causes at Vertigo. It gives me great satisfaction that a story like this, that takes place in the suburbs of my city, can be read in other countries and other languages. I think that we can all relate with some of the issues in the novel: the little worth attached to life, the corruption which kills, the idea that the truth doesn't matter."