the Aracari Blog

The acclaimed Peruvian author Alfredo Bryce Echenique has released a new collection of short stories to add to his eclectic repertoire.

Entitled La esposa del Rey de las Curvas, the new book recounts phases of hardship during the writer’s life and is wrought with “little revenges” against various people whom he has encountered. In exploration of the human condition, the twelve stand-alone stories all have a strong autobiographical component, as well as searing nostalgia towards the writer’s homeland. Notwithstanding, they include a generous smattering of the writer’s typically ironic, humorous and digressive style.

Born in Lima, Peru, in 1939, Bryce has lamented the fact that he has written in the shadow of other prominent Peruvian and Latin American novelists such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He stated at the opening of the new book in Bolivia that he had “arrived late for the boom that lifted this genre, and I came with something distinct, with some novels that were very long and some that were very ludicrous.”

His writing is tempered by a tumultuous life experience, which has featured self-aggrandised bouts of heavy alcohol abuse and agonising solitude, such as a painful experience at a psychiatric hospital in Montpellier, France. Though his loneliness may well have been the key to his prolificacy; ”I’ve always been a person of great solitude who has lived in excellent company,” he explained ironically during a recent interview in Barcelona. “My solitude has been chosen yet very patient, although it has allowed me to write and read a lot.”.

La esposa del Rey de las Curvas, published by Anagram, was presented at the opening of the 6^th Meeting of Ibero-American Writers which took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia earlier this month. The meeting saw six Latin American writers discuss Humour and Literature at the city’s Centro Patino.

Visit the official website of Alfredo Bryce Echenique for more information on his works, which include such titles as Un mundo para Julius, Tantas veces Pedro and Reo de nocturnidad.

For non-Spanish speakers, many of Bryce’s books have been translated into English, so be sure to have a dip in if you are interested in his profile.