Alfaguara Publishes Shocking New Novel, 'El cojo y el loco,' By Renown Author and TV Personality, Jaime Bayly

MIAMI, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Moving away from his usual narrative style, in this new novel Peruvian writer Jaime Bayly offers us his crudest and most shocking work yet; even his most faithful readers will be left breathless. In "El cojo y el loco" (Alfaguara), Bayly moves away from his fictionalized real life adventures and centers his story on two characters who, because of their deformities and limitations, are forced into exile.

This is the brutal and whirlwind story of the lives of two young men from Lima's upper class, the madman and the cripple, victims of their parents' cruelty and humiliations, who in turn, make them into two very unethical beings, ready to blow up everything that gets on their way. Two unfortunate creatures, with parallel existences, that have in common the ruthless rejection of their parents and an ironic and violent end. Their oddity comes from the unbalance between their physical characteristics -- to limp and stutter -- and the standard values of their social class, where anything different is considered deformed, abnormal, and therefore, is hidden.

In this new work, it can be difficult to recognize autobiographical themes; nevertheless, Jaime Bayly has accepted some similarities between him and his two characters. As he stated at the 2009 Miami Book Fair, "Because I have a limp, because I am mad, and because I will probably have a violent, accidental, and humorous death, just like them."

"It is evident that in this novel Jaime Bayly leaves behind his light and freethinking way of being Jaime Bayly, [...] Leaving behind the usual alter ego, at last, is what refreshes this Peruvian author's literature: the usual sarcasm is still there, and through those two lives, those two destinies, Bayly weaves a violent plot, with explicit language and at times dangerously ferocious." -- Hernan Vera Alvarez, El Nuevo Herald, Miami.

Jaime Bayly was born in Lima, Peru, 1965. After a ten year career in journalism, he started his life as a writer in 1994 with his first novel "No se lo digas a nadie." His virtuous writing style has always been positively recognized: endearing characters, agile and intense dialogues, an excellent action-filled narrative, and mainly, a sarcastic sense of humor. With Alfaguara he published "Los amigos que perdi," and now returns with "El cojo y el loco"; the first of his novels where his alter ego seems to be absent. In March 2010, Alfaguara will publish new editions of his most recognized works, "No se lo digas a nadie," "Los ultimos dias de la prensa," "Fue ayer y no me acuerdo," and "Yo amo a mi mami" under the new Jaime Bayly Collection.

The work, published by Santillana Publishing Co. under the Alfaguara imprint, is already available at your nearest bookstore.

SOURCE Santillana USA Publishing