Alfredo Bryce Echenique

Alfredo Bryce Echenique studied at National University of San Marcos and Paris 8 University. The recorded working language is Spanish. Employment is recorded with Paris Nanterre University. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship, Premio Planeta de Novela, FIL Award and honorary doctorate of the National University of San Marcos.

• Birth Name — Alfredo Marcelo Bryce Echenique • Born — 19 February 1939 • Birthplace — Lima, Peru • Died — 10 March 2026 • Place of death — Lima, Peru • Occupation — Writer • Education — National University of San Marcos • Notable Works — * Con Jimmy, en Paracas (1967) • Huerto cerrado (1968) • A World for Julius (1972) • La vida exagerada de Martín Romaña (1981) • El huerto de mi amada (2002) • Spouse — * Maggie Revilla • Pilar de Vega Martínez • Ana Chávez • Awards — * National Prize for Literature (1972) • Order of the Sun • Premio Planeta (2002)

Alfredo Bryce Echenique was born in Lima on 19 February 1939, to a family of bankers. He was the great-grandson of José Rufino Echenique, who served as the country's president in 1851–1855. Bryce attended elementary school at the Colegio Inmaculado Corazón. At age 15, he entered the San Pablo British boarding school. He attended the National University of San Marcos, where he graduated in law and completed a parallel Bachelor of Arts in literature with a thesis on Ernest Hemingway. He went on to receive a doctorate in literature from the Sorbonne in Paris.

Bryce moved to Paris in 1964. At the Sorbonne, he studied classic and contemporary French literature for two academic years.

Between 1965 and 1966, he subsequently lived in Perugia, Mykonos, and Germany, where he moved to study German with a grant from the Goethe-Institut.

Bryce returned to France and taught Spanish in a school in Paris's Le Marais district from 1967 to 1968. In 1968, he published his first book Huerto cerrado; also in 1968 he began to lecture on Latin American literature at Paris Nanterre University and from 1971 on at the Sorbonne. In 1970, he published the novel A World for Julius, the work for which he was best remembered; it was translated into English by Dick Gerdes in 1992, and a motion picture adaptation was released in 2021. In 1972, he was awarded the Peruvian National Prize for Literature and in 1973, he entered as an assistant lecturer to the University of Vincennes (Paris VIII). A few years later in 1975, Bryce received a Guggenheim fellowship and obtained a master's degree in comparative literature from Vincennes. In 1977, he returned to Peru and received his doctoral degree from San Marcos University with a thesis on Henry de Montherlant.

In 1980, he moved to Montpellier in Southern France, where he entered the Paul Valéry University Montpellier 3 as a professor.

In 1984, Bryce settled down in Spain living first in Barcelona and from 198? in Madrid until his return to Peru. In he adopted Spanish citizenship without losing his Peruvian nationality. In 1999, he returned to Peru, where he resided at the time of his death in 2026. Bryce continued writing until 2019, when he published his final volume of memoirs and retired.

In March 2007, Peruvian diplomat Oswaldo de Rivero wrote an article for the Lima newspaper El Comercio accusing Bryce of plagiarizing his article "Potencias sin poder". Bryce responded by saying the article had been submitted in error by his secretary. Also in 2007, he was accused of plagiarizing an article by José María Pérez Álvarez; Bryce apologized to Pérez Álvarez and claimed that political conspirators, intent on causing him harm, had submitted the article under his name. In May 2008, the writer Herberto Morote presented a complaint alleging that Bryce had plagiarized his works. The INDECOPI dismissed the complaint due to lack of evidence. However, in 2009, the INDECOPI found Bryce guilty of plagiarizing 16 articles from 15 different authors (among them de Rivero) and ordered him to pay a fine of 177,000 soles (equivalent to €41,000). Bryce maintained that he had never committed plagiarism; nevertheless, according to an open letter published in the newspaper El País, 40 cases of plagiarism by Bryce have been verified.

In 1968, the year he published Huerto cerrado, Bryce married Maggie Revilla. His second wife was Pilar de Vega Martínez, from Asturias, whom he married in 1980 in Spain. In 2004, he married a Peruvian lawyer, Ana Chávez Montoya. He also had a relationship with a Puerto Rican model, Tere Llanza; his final partner was Claudia Grau.

Bryce died in Lima on 10 March 2026, at the age of 87. His close friend, Spanish singer-songwriter Joaquín Sabina, published two poems in his honor. Álvaro Vargas Llosa, son of fellow Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, posted a tribute to Bryce on social media, calling him "one of the great Peruvian writers, and of the Spanish language". The Peruvian Ministry of Culture and the Peruvian Presidency also expressed their condolences. His remains were cremated and scattered in the sea in La Punta District, Callao.

Alfredo Bryce Echenique is recorded as having received Guggenheim Fellowship, Premio Planeta de Novela and FIL Award. Recorded at birth as Alfredo Marcelo Bryce Echenique.