Ricardo Somocurcio is in love with a bad girl. He loves her as a teenager known as “Lily” in Lima in 1950, when she arrives one summer out of the blue, claiming to be from Chile but vanishing the moment her claim is exposed as fiction. He loves her next in Paris, where she appears as the enchanting “Comrade Arlette,” an activist en route to Cuba, and becomes his lover, albeit n icy, remote one who denies knowing anything about the ily of years gone by. Whoever the bad girl turns up as—whether t’s Madame Robert Arnoux, the wife of a high-ranking UNESCO fficial, or Kuriko, the mistress of a sinister Japanese businessman—and however poorly she treats him, Ricardo is doomed to worship her.
The protean Lily, gifted liar and irresistible, maddening muse—does Ricardo ever know who she really is? The answer is as unclear s what has become of Ricardo himself, a lifelong expatriate hadowed by the sense that he is only ever drifting. In MarioVargas Llosa’s beguiling new novel, the strange bedfellows of good and bad turn out not to be what they appear.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
" One of South America's finest contemporary writers." -- Dominic Bradbury, "The Times "(London) "One of South America's finest contemporary writers." --Dominic Bradbury, "The Times "(London) "Llosa writes an unabashed love story and makes no apologies for it. He seamlessly weaves it into the rich texture of the social atmosphere of the times. . . . Written with passion and energy that delivers."--"Rocky Mountain News""Perversely charming . . . irresistibly entertaining."--"The Washington Post Book World""A marvelous novel."--"Chicago Tribune""Spans decades and continents--and in the process, with a deftness that borders on literary sleight of hand, bridges the personal and the universal."--"San Francisco Chronicle""A beautifully constructed, stinging tease of a novel."--"The Seattle Times""" "" "Llosa writes an unabashed love story and makes no apologies for it. He seamlessly weaves it into the rich texture of the social atmosphere of the times. . . . Written with passion and energy that delivers."--"Rocky Mountain News ""Perversely charming . . . irresistibly entertaining."--"The Washington Post Book World ""A marvelous novel."--"Chicago Tribune ""Spans decades and continents--and in the process, with a deftness that borders on literary sleight of hand, bridges the personal and the universal."--"San Francisco Chronicle ""A beautifully constructed, stinging tease of a novel."--"The Seattle Times""" "" "A marvelous novel."--"Chicago Tribune""A beautifully constructed, stinging tease of a novel."--"The Seattle Times""Spans decades and continents--and in the process, with a deftness that borders on literary sleight of hand, bridges the personal and the universal."--"San Francisco Chronicle""Perversely charming . . . irresistibly entertaining."--"The Washington Post Book World"
Book Description:
A gripping and poignant new novel from one of Latin America’s greatest writers.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherFarrar Straus & Giroux
- Publication date2007
- ISBN 10 0374182434
- ISBN 13 9780374182434
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages376
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Rating