''The Blue Hour'' (La Hora Azul) is a

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

vian novelist

Alonso Cueto Alonso Cueto Caballero (born 1954 in Lima, Peru) is a Peruvian author, university professor and newspaper columnist. His writing career has spanned nearly four decades, during which he has produced dozens of works of fiction, articles and essays ...

. It won the

Premio Herralde de Novela The Premio Herralde is a Spanish literary prize. It is awarded annually by the publishing house Anagrama to an original novel in the Spanish language. Established in 1983, the prize takes its name from Jorge Herralde, founder of Anagrama. Accompanie ...

for Spanish-language novels in 2006. The English translation, by

Frank Wynne Frank Wynne (born 1962) is an Irish literary translator and writer. Born in County Sligo in the west of Ireland, he worked as a comics editor at Fleetway and later at comic magazine ''Deadline''. He worked for a time at AOL before becoming a l ...

, was published in 2012, and won the 2013

Premio Valle-Inclán The Premio Valle-Inclán is a literary translation prize. It is awarded by the Society of Authors (London) for the best English translation of a work of Spanish literature. It is named after Ramón del Valle-Inclán. The prize money is GBP £2,000. ...

; it was shortlisted for the

Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize is an annual literary prize for any book-length translation into English from any other living European language. The first prize was awarded in 1999. The prize is funded by and named in honour of Lord Weidenfe ...

in the same year. The story concerns a successful lawyer from

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 ...

and his search for a woman whom he discovers had been kidnapped and held as a virtual sex slave by his now deceased father, a former military officer, during the war against the

Shining Path The Shining Path ( es, Sendero Luminoso), officially the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a communist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group in Peru following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the gro ...

guerrilla organization in the hinterland of

. Although ostensibly a political thriller, it is also a story of redemption and an attempt by the protagonist to disperse some of the ghosts haunting his country after years of internal strife.

Film adaptation

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

of the book was made, initially premiering in late August 2014 at the

Montreal International Film Festival The Montreal International Film Festival was an annual Canadian film festival, which took place in Montreal, Quebec from 1960 to 1967.

. It was commercially released on October 13, 2016 in Peruvian theaters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Hour, The 2005 novels Political thriller novels Military novels Novels set in Peru Novels set in the 1980s Heinemann (publisher) books Peruvian novels