Torn from the Nest (Library of Latin America) - Tapa dura

In this tragic tale, Clorinda Matto de Turner explores the relationship between the landed gentry and the indigenous peoples of the Andean mountain communities. While unfolding as a love story rife with secrets and dashed hopes, Torn from the Nest in fact reveals a deep and destructive class disparity, and criticizes the Catholic clergy for blatant corruption. When Lucia and Don Fernando Marin settle in the small hamlet of Killac, the young couple become advocates for the local Indians who are being exploited and oppressed by their priest and governor and by the gentry allied with these two. Considered meddling outsiders, the couple meet violent resistance from the village leaders, who orchestrate an assault on their house and pursue devious and unfair schemes to keep the Indians subjugated. After a romance blossoms between a member of the gentry and the peasant girl that Lucia and Don Fernando have adopted, a dreadful secret prevents their marriage and brings to a climax the novel's exposure of degradation.

Clorinda Matto de Turner was a major literary figure in 19th century Peru. She was a pioneer of indigenist literature, and was a crucial Peruvian writer in the shift from Romanticism to Naturalism. The late Antonio Cornejo-Polar was Professor of Spanish at The University of California, Berkeley. John Polt, Professor Emeritus of Spanish at the University of California, Berkeley, has translated several Spanish and Spanish American authors.