Carlos Thorne (March 11, 1923 – September 1, 2021) was a Peruvian novelist, writer and lawyer. He is regarded as one of the most original and innovative Peruvian writers of the second half of the 20th century. This is due to his unique blend of avant garde flashback techniques, following

Malcolm Lowry Clarence Malcolm Lowry (; 28 July 1909 – 26 June 1957) was an English poet and novelist who is best known for his 1947 novel ''Under the Volcano'', which was voted No. 11 in the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list.

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

, with historical detail and accuracy, to the point of reproducing the Spanish of the

Conquistadores Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to ...

Life and works

Thorne was born in

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

, where he studied law and philosophy. After a successful career as lawyer and some excursions into politics, he decided to devote his life to literature and academic research, writing books and becoming professor in law at th
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos de Lima
(UNMSM), the oldest in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

. He has been visiting lecturer both in literature and law in the universities of Columbia, Salamanca, Uppsala, King's College London, Liverpool and Complutense. Perhaps his best known contribution to Latin American novel is his Peruvian trilogy. ''Papá Lucas'' (1987), is a novel centered on the war against Chile in the 1880s. Next, ''El señor de Lunahuaná'' (1994), which is devoted to the wars of independence from the 1810s and 1820s. Finally, ''El encomendero de la adarga de plata'' (1999), the most experimental of the three, is a powerful evocation of the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...

written in 17th-century Spanish and set during the

Inca The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

siege of

Cuzco Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; ...

in 1536. In his books the reader gets caught from the first pages in a world of wonder, passion and violence of a strange beauty and poetry. As such, he is seen by his peers and by the critics as on a par with

Alejo Carpentier Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French an ...

and

Gabriel García Marquez In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብር� ...

and thus as one of the main living exponents of the "real maravilloso" ( Magic realism) Latin American novel tradition and of the Latin American historical novel. ''Viva la república'' (1981), his first novel, is a highly achieved satire of the Peruvian military dictators of the 1970s that he passionately opposed. Thorne died in Lima in September 2021, at the age of 98.Fallece el escritor y miembro de la Academia Peruana de la Lengua Carlos Thorne Boas
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Novels

''Viva la república'' (1981) ''Papá Lucas'' (1987) ''El señor de Lunahuaná'' (1994) ''El encomendero de la adarga de plata'' (1999) ''Yo, San Martín'' (2011)

Tales and Short Stories

''Los días fáciles'' (1959) ''Mañana Mao'' (1964) ''La diosa Marina'' (1996) ''En las fauces de las Fieras'' (2004) ''Cuentos completos'' (2005) ''País Violento'' (2016)

Essays

''Palabras de Utopía'' (1983) ''Páginas de Extramuros'' (1993) ''El Hilo de la Razón –'' First edition (1995) ''Los oficios de la Lengua'' (2001) ''La generación del 50 y el Periodismo'' (2007) ''El Hilo de la Razón –'' Augmented Second Edition (2015)

Other writings

''La interpretación de la ley. Cuestiones Metodológicas'' (1989)

References

* Seymour Menton, ''Latin America's New Historical Novel''. 1993, University of Texas Press, Austin.
Seymour Menton, ''Caminata por la narrativa latinoamericana''. 2004, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México.

External links

Bio.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorne, Carlos 1923 births 2021 deaths Magic realism writers Male novelists People from Lima Peruvian male writers Peruvian novelists