(Lima) Fiction writer, literary critic and university lecturer. He studied Literature at the National University of San Marcos and earned his doctorate in Spanish-American Literature at the Complutense University of Madrid. He served as Director of the School of Literature at San Marcos and taught courses on Greek, medieval and Golden Age Spanish literature and Spanish-American literature. His debut novel, El cielo sobre nosotros (Alfaguara, 2007), was selected as one of the five best novels of that year, while his short story collection Una noche, un sueño (Peisa, 1996) —reissued by De Lirio in 2026 with additional stories— was acclaimed as a major work of prose from the 1990s. His critical work has established him as an expert on the writings of Vargas Llosa, Jorge Luis Borges and Cervantes, among other major Spanish-language authors. He has also published non-fiction works such as La hacienda en el Perú: historia y leyenda (1998), Agua de los Andes (1999) and Dioses del antiguo Perú (2026). Since 2014, he has been a prolific writer for children and young adults. His publications for this audience include the young adult novel La zona invisible (winner of the 2015 Barco de Vapor-Peru Award) and the story “La abuela que tejía el aire” (included on the 2026 IBBY Honour List).
© Imagen Alejandra Garayar
