
Santiago Roncagliolo ©
Santiago Roncagliolo [Peru/ Spain]
Born in 1975 in Lima, Peru, Santiago Roncagliolo is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, and translator.
In 2006 his novel Red April won the Alfaguara Prize novel. In English, that novel received the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. It is translated to more than 20 languages.
His non-fiction book Memorias de una Dama (2009, tr: Memories of a Woman) recalls his life as a ghost writer for the daughter of a powerful Dominican family with roots in fascism, mafia and Caribbean dictatorships. But the family censored the book. It was retired from shelves and, still now, his author is forbidden to talk about it.
In 2014, Roncagliolo published La Pena Máxima (tr: The Maximum Penalty) a new adventure of fiscal Felix Chacaltana, star of Red April, set in the 1978 World Cup during the Argentinian dictatorship. That year, The Wall Street Journal named him one of six authors following in the footsteps of Gabriel García Márquez.
Roncagliolo has also been a screenwriter, investigative journalist and political adviser. His novel Pudor was made a film. His other novels Tan cerca de la vida (tr: So Close To Life) and Oscar y las mujeres (tr: Oscar and the women) explore psychological thriller and black humour. Collaborations with the Spanish newspaper El País and various Latin American newspapers. He has translated a number of authors, such as Jean Genet, Joyce Carol Oates, and André Gide.
His latest book, El año en que nació el demonio (tl : The Year the Devil was Born) was published in 2023. Set in Peru in 1623. On a black night like no other, the devil became flesh in the City of Kings when, in the convent of Santa Clara, a novice gave birth to a horrifying beast with two heads, a forked tongue and eight limbs. The birth of the beast coincided with the appearance in the capital of a woman named Rosa, who is said to be able to talk to God and the Devil. Santiago Roncagliolo brings to life a dark era, abundant in intrigue and shrouded in the ghosts of superstition and idolatry.