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 one of the major literary figures of nineteenth-century Peru. Her first novel, Aves Sin Nido (Torn from the Nest) was a landmark work in the indigenismo genre which depicts the lives of contemporary Indians in the rural setting. The novel's initial success was due to its explicit and critical treatment of the problems of the indigenous population of Peru and because of its attack on the immorality of the priesthood. The plot involves a young couple who arrive in the Peruvian province where the Indians are exploited by landowners and public officials and the women are especially abused by local priests. The idealistic couple attempt to improve the lives of the Indians, but encounter difficulties at every turn. This novel has not been translated since 1904.