Mario Vargas Llosa

Mario Vargas Llosa's latest novel. A mystery that captures the contradictions of a whole country.

Toño Azpilcueta breathes and lives for Creole music and he is unquestionably its greatest authority and collector in Peru. But instead of this finding him a place among the Lima intelligentsia, he is only able to contribute with his vast knowledge to trashy magazines that pay him a pittance.

One night Toño attends a soirée to listen to a guitarist he has never heard of. His name is Lalo Molfino and, as soon as the first chords sound, Toño realizes that he is listening to someone of astonishing talent. In his write-up, he predicts a successful career for Lalo Molfino, but some time later he finds out that the musician has died in the Hospital Obrero in complete anonymity. How could the greatest guitarist in the history of Peru become destitute? Who was Lalo Molfino? Why doesn't anyone seem to remember his name or his music?

Toño embarks on a journey into the heart of Peru, determined to write a book about Lalo Molfino that he also hopes will be a great book about the culture of his country in the light of Creole music. The music that emerged in the poorest back streets of Lima and worked the miracle of uniting, perhaps for the first time, all Peruvians under the same sky.

‘Endowed with legendary discipline and brutal talent, Mario Vargas Llosa has created an immense tableau of life in Peru and its contradictions, a critical portrayal of society, but above all, a literary universe unparalleled in our language.’ Lectura, El Mundo

‘With his intact sense of narrative rhythm, impeccable rigor in handling data and references derived from overwhelming research, and the skillful simplicity of his dialogue, [...] his dissident writing shatters the world as he had read that heroes did in chivalric novels. Returning to his roots, he charges and accounts for a timeless insurrection against man and the world.’ El Periódico 

‘The novel is permeated by a charming sentimental air and exhales melancholy. It is elegant and heartfelt, characteristic of an author who relives his life experiences because he knows that time is catching up with him.’ Letra Global, El Español

‘That's where the greatness of this story lies, in which Vargas Llosa puts all his expertise and his ample intelligence at the service of a good tale. Azpilcueta is also a modern Don Quixote, a wandering knight who raises a brand-new discourse against the world and the lack of imagination.’ Zenda Libros

‘The great literary quality of Vargas Llosa makes it easy for an entertaining narrative, outside the dogmas of current events, to be filled with necessary inquiries about culture, history, identity, loneliness, empire, the Spanish language, garbage, and everyone's loves.’ El País 

‘Vargas Llosa alternates chapters that reproduce passages from that work in progress with the investigations and adventures of Azpilcueta, combining narration and essay and achieving the rare balance of making us interested in both the evolution of the Peruvian waltz and the plot that revolves around the folklorist.’ Babelia, El País 

‘This huachafo* novel contributes to Vargas Llosa's significant exploration: to dissect that human drama, a source of dissatisfaction, tragic and vain feats, glorious and huachafo visions, which arises when imperfect beings believe they have found the keys to perfection. *Huachafería is an expressive mode that is close to cheesiness but is much more: a very Peruvian way of seeing and being in the world, a way of facing existence in which feeling predominates over reason and whose best expression is found, precisely, in the Creole waltz.’ Letras libres 

 'A moving novel. Vargas Llosa knows how to touch again. His passionate descriptions of the love between the rich white Toni, who banishes his family in order to marry the poor, black Lala, and the role that the marineras, waltzes and polkas play in the lives of many Peruvians, are moving.' NRC

'You perk up again at the moving conclusion, which is given an extra charge by knowing that this is his very last novel. That knowledge makes you melancholic. It is actually hard to imagine that with Ik draag mijn stilte op aan jou (I dedicate my silence to you) an end has come to sixty-five years of monumental authorship. As addicted as Vargas Llosa was to writing, as attached as you became as a reader to the prospect of always a new book that matters.'  Volkskrant

'Vargas Llosa succeeds in giving this novel three layers. One: the reader joins Azpilcueta in his search for the mysterious past of that genius guitarist. Two: Vargas Llosa pokes fun at how intellectuals can be captivated by all sorts of all too absolute ideas. And three: the history of the Peruvian waltz is explained in passing, but still very beautifully, tangibly and with great attention to detail. And then there is a fourth layer. Because this book is also about how impossible or almost impossible it is to write a complicated masterpiece. Vargas Llosa himself has done daring, almost impossible things in his novels. This book also has something of a daredevilry. A very entertaining novel.' Trouw

'Vargas Llosa is one of those writers who stay with you your whole life. I have read all his books and it is as if he has become family. He wrote relevant and above all incredibly exciting stories.' Maarten Steenmeijer, VPRO Gids

'A literary phenomenon. Vargas Llosa is able to create a completely convincing, richly varied world from one central location, a cadet school or a pub for example. His great strength as a man of letters lies in his humour and the way he builds up the tension.' Barber van der Pol, VPRO Gids

'A gem. A glowing ode to Llosa's native Peru. His sensual writing style effortlessly transports you to the slums of Lima around the 90s.' Zin Magazine