Titles
- El cielo de Lima
- Los que duermen
El cielo de Lima (The sky above Lima)
In 1904, two young Peruvian poets desperately want to get books and letters signed by the famous poet Juan Ramón Jiménez whom they admire. They decide to write to him under the name of Georgina Hübner. The result of this well-documented literary coup is a long correspondence that culminates in Juan Ramón Jiménez falling in love with the “phantom” in Lima. The tragic end of this love is recorded by the poet himself in his beautifully poetic “Letter to Georgina Hübner in the sky above Lima”, published in his book Laberinto (1913).
The Spanish author Juan Gómez Bárcena (Santander, 1984) based his novel on this historical anecdote. He relates how the two young Peruvian “poetry apprentices” José Gálvez and Carlos Rodríguez, who are aware of the mediocrity of their own lyrical creations, create the perfect muse for the poet they admire. She will inspire him to write some of his best poems. The author leads the reader through the Peru of the turn of the century, from the attics of a false aristocratic Bohemia to the brothels in the slums, and to the gutter in which the first martyrs of the working class end up. He lets the reader experience the emergence of the muse Georgina who rouses passions on both sides of the Atlantic, and becomes the real protagonist of this novel.
Spain: Salto de Página, 2014
