A stunning, prizewinning novel exploring the aftermath of the Peruvian Civil War, by one of the greatest living South American writers.

"The Blue Hour is a magnificent novel that describes ten years of civil war and terrorism with lucidity and resonant fantasy." Mario Vargas Llosa "One of the major novelists of his generation." Diario de Tarragona "Alonso Cueto's fine, prize-winning debut novel stands in that tradition...the conflation of Adrian's personal trauma with his nation's dark history is beautifully, delicately done." Financial Times "Peruvian writer Alonso Cueto is one of the novelists spearheading his country's literary renaissance, drawing on the aftermath of Peru's devastating civil war to do so." Metro "As absorbing for its sketches of Lima as for its story, this is a primer for both a nascent Latin American genre and a place dealing with near-history's horrors." Monocle

Born in Lima, Peru, in 1954, Alonso Cueto spent his childhood in Paris and Washington, returning to Lima at the age of seven. He studied literature at the Universidad Catolica del Peru and later at the University of Texas, Austin. In 1985 he married Kristin Keenan Atwood, with whom he has two children. He lives in Lima.