Torcuato Luca de Tena was a Spanish writer. He was born on 9th June 1923 in Madrid as Torcuato Luca de Tena Brunet. He was a grandson of Torcuato Luca de Tena and Álvarez Ossorio, a Spanish journalist and renowned businessman who established Blanco y Negro and ABC. Torcuato was famous for his books such as the 1967 La mujer de otro, the 1979 Los renglones torcidos de Dios as well as La otra vida del capitán Contreras published in 1955. He passed on the 1st of June, 1999, in Madrid (Martínez de la Riva).
One of his famed artworks was Los renglones torcidos de Dios, authored and published in 1979. The title translates to “The twisted lines of God” in English. It is a novel whose main character is a detective known as Alice Gould who, while following clues to a murder case, goes into a psychiatric hospital. The book’s preface is written by Juan Antonio Vallejo-Nágera, a psychiatrist. The book has some personal connection to its author and most analysts see the book as documentation of himself. Luca de Tena spent 18 days in a psychiatric hospital, where he associated directly with people with a mental health condition. This admission to the hospital would later become the basis for establishing the characters of his novel. The dedication of his book was inspired by the profound influence he gained from his experiences in the psychiatric facility (Martínez de la Riva).
The book has received a lot of acknowledgment with a film shot in 1983 under the book’s name. Luca de Tena took part in making the script whose film director was Tulio Demicheli. The book is thrilling since it is in the crime mystery genre. Alice is determined to find her father’s murderer who is held in the hospital. She is driven by vengeance and has to sacrifice staying in the facility and investigating. She has to take into account the level of mental illnesses and the intoxication of the patients while investigating. It is a good read and is recommended to anyone who loves reading novels (Korp).
Luca de Tena
Work Cited
Korp, Bethany Michele. Techniques In Overcoming Difficulties In Spanish-To-English Translation As Illustrated By Torcuato Luca De Tena’s Los Renglones Torcidos De Dios (God’s Twisted Lines). 2000. Print.
Martínez de la Riva, Ramón. Luca De Tena. Madrid: Ediciones Nuestra Raza. Print.
