Herfamily come from Bessarabia. Alicia Steimberg's life formed the framework and informed the themes ofher satirical and irreverent novels and short stories. She often gave her protagonists Alicia or similar names, such as Cecilia. The loss of her father when she was young and a tempestuous relationship with her mother are recur- ring themes in her fiction. Her first novel, Músicos y relojeros, deals with her youth and adolescence as wel as with the tumultuous and amusing activities of her immigrant relatives: courtship rituals, tacky weddings, and family feuds. La loca 101 (Madwoman 101, 1973) relates the tribulations of the aspiring writer whose drive to write and social and familial responsibilities threaten her mental stability. In Su espiritu inocente (Her Innocent Spirit, 1981) she portrayed her years in high school and college as well as her first marriage. The novel contrasts the narrator's painful memories with the sensual pleasures of a love affair at a spa somewhere in Brazil. One hopes that her last novel, La música deJulia (2008) was autobiographical, because it relates how Julia and an old friend Eduardo rekindle their relationship in their seventies. As usual, bits and pieces of their life stories form the plot: stories that relate their failing bodies and mental acuity. Most of Steimberg's novels deal humorously with difficult personal topics and the social and economic chaos in her country. As Saul Sosnowski points out, she skillfully wove together pieces of stories in ways that challenge the reader