Guillermo Arbe

I was born in Peru, but spent the first ten years of my life living near Washington D.C. (mainly Hyattsville, Maryland). I spent much of my early life going back and forth between the U.S. and Peru. This included going to college at Cornell. College is a unique experience,which all pretty much refer back to over our lifetime. Ithaca, A Novel picks up on typical, and also no so typical, college experiences.

I learned to read in write in English in grade school (St. Jerome's School, I was brought up a good Catholic boy), but am bilingual. Being bilingual has been important. Being Peruvian by birth and residing mostly in Peru since college, I originally thought that I should write in Spanish. However, reading Nabokov, and, more specifically, Lolita, showed me otherwise. I have came to believe that seeing a language from the prism of another language gives you a special perspective.

Ithaca, A Novel is a book that combines four of the things I most cherish in my life: college memories, the English language and it's quirks and intricacies, philosophy, or, more exactly, wondering about things, and friendship.