With sorrow weighing even on sadness itself, we received the news of the passing of our dear Alfredo Bryce Echenique, a great friend and one of the greatest Spanish-American writers of all time.
Born in Lima in 1939, he studied Law at the Universidad de San Marcos and in the mid-1960s moved to Paris to obtain a degree in Literature from La Sorbonne. There he shared hardships and struggles with Julio Ramón Ribeyro, two young Latin Americans who had moved to Paris with the dream of becoming writers. It was also there that he met Julio Cortázar, from whom he learned that humor was a master key to great literature, a key Bryce himself would use to become a masterful storyteller.
Among his novels, A World for Julius, considered his masterpiece, offers an unsparing portrait of the Limeño oligarchy of his childhood, while The Exaggerated Life of Martín Romaña is freely based on his years in Paris. He was also the author of short stories, chronicles and three volumes of memoirs in which his shattering pessimism comes to the surface.
For those who had the good fortune to meet him, he was a wonderful storyteller, the protagonist of priceless anecdotes that could only happen to him, and one of the funniest, most entertaining and endearing people we have had the privilege to know.
Rest in peace, Alfredo.