Born in a small town in the Argentine pampas, Manuel Puig (1932–1990) read philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires before winning a scholarship to study film direction at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Exiled from Argentina, he settled in New York City in 1963. His 1976 novel Kiss of the Spider Woman was filmed in 1985 by the Argentine-Brazilian director Héctor Babenco, thereafter becoming a Broadway musical in 1993. Puig’s novels have been translated into fourteen languages.
