{{short description|2005 novel by Alonso Cueto}} {{infobox book|<!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject Books --> | name = The Blue Hour | title_orig = La Hora Azul | translator = Frank Wynne | image = The Blue Hour (book).jpg | caption = First edition | author = Alonso Cueto | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = Spain | language = Spanish | series = | genre = Political thriller | publisher = Random House UK | release_date = 2005 | english_release_date = 2014 | media_type = | pages = | isbn = 978-0099533092 | isbn_note = (English H/B) | preceded_by = | followed_by = Grandes Miradas (2006) }} '''''The Blue Hour''''' (La Hora Azul) is a 2005 novel by Peruvian novelist Alonso Cueto.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://catalogue.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&frbg=&scp.scps=scope%3A%28BLCONTENT%29&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1437749266844&srt=rank&ct=search&mode=Basic&vl%28488279563UI0%29=any&dum=true&tb=t&indx=1&vl%28freeText0%29=the%20blue%20hour&vid=BLVU1&fn=search|title=Login|work=bl.uk}}</ref> It won the Premio Herralde de Novela for Spanish-language novels in 2006. The English translation, by Frank Wynne, was published in 2012, and won the 2013 Premio Valle-Inclán; it was shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize in the same year.
Mario Vargas Llosa described this book as "a magnificent novel that describes ten years of civil war and terrorism with lucidity and resonant fantasy".
Another Nobel Prize winner, J.M. Coetzee described it as "s dark and disturbing novel".
The story concerns a successful lawyer from Lima and his search for a woman whom he discovers had been kidnapped and held as a virtual sex slave by his now deceased father, a former military officer, during the war against the Shining Path guerrilla organization in the hinterland of Peru.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/book-review-the-blue-hour-by-alonso-cueto-8679002.html|title=Book review: The Blue Hour, by Alonso Cueto|date=28 June 2013}}</ref> Although ostensibly a political thriller, it is also a story of redemption and an attempt by the protagonist to disperse some of the ghosts haunting his country after years of internal strife.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2014/january/blue-hour-alonso-cueto#.VbJLevlTNdg|title=The Blue Hour by Alonso Cueto|work=worldliteraturetoday.org|date=16 December 2013}}</ref>
== Film adaptation == A film adaptation of the book was made,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Película: La Hora Azul. Basada en la novela homónima. |url=https://alonsocueto.com/pelicula-la-hora-azul/ |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=Alonso Cueto |language=es-PE}}</ref> initially premiering in late August 2014 at the Montreal International Film Festival.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-08-23 |title=Fielalcine.blogspot.com: Se estreno en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Montreal: La Hora Azul, de Evelyne Pegot-Ogier (Perù). |url=http://fielalcine.blogspot.com/2014/08/se-estreno-en-el-festival-internacional.html |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=Fielalcine.blogspot.com}}</ref> It was commercially released on October 13, 2016 in Peruvian theaters.<ref>{{Cite web |last=PERÚ |first=NOTICIAS EL COMERCIO |date=2016-10-08 |title="La hora azul": película peruana se estrena este 13 de octubre {{!}} LUCES |url=https://elcomercio.pe/luces/cine/hora-azul-pelicula-peruana-estrena-13-octubre-268340-noticia/ |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=El Comercio Perú |language=es}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Hour, The}} Category:2005 novels Category:Political thriller novels Category:Military novels Category:Novels set in Peru Category:Novels set in the 1980s Category:Heinemann (publisher) books Category:Peruvian novels Category:2000s Spanish-language novels