Manuel Puig was an Argentinian novelist and screenwriter, born as Juan Manuel Puig Delledonne in 1932 near Buenos Aires in Argentina. While still in school, Puig developed an interest in psychoanalysis and European cinema, studying English by watching movies. Puig started studying at the School of Philosophy and Literature in Buenos Aires in 1951 and later in Rome, Italy, to become a film director. After working in films in Italy, Sweden, France, England and the US and publishing his first writings, Puig finally left Argentina for good in 1973, discontent with the political regime. While in exile, he published several novels and award-winning screenplays. Most of his major works were translated into other languages. Puig died in Mexico in 1990.
Heartbreak Tango was Puig’s second novel, published in 1969 in Spanish under the title Boquitas pintadas. The original Spanish title of the novel can be translated into Little Painted/Lipsticked Mouths. The novel was adapted into a popular Argentine film in 1974, directed by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson and translated into English as Heartbreak Tango.
Puig’s early writings incorporated many instances of pop culture and were notable for their use of innovative narrative techniques such as shifting points of views as well as flashbacks, drawing inspiration from the medium of film. Most of Puig’s novels were either set in Argentina or featured Argentines in exile, drawing from Puig’s own experiences of living all over the world.
