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A gripping and poignant novel about a mysterious romance, from the great Latin American author of "Aunt Julia & The Scriptwriter" and "The Feast Of The Goat". Vargas Llosa's first novel for three years. 'He is a great storyteller, who combines high seriousness with a lightness of touch' "The Times"
Synopsis
Ricardo Somocurcio is in love with a bad girl. He loves her as a teenager known as 'Lily' in Lima in 1950, where she claims to be from Chile but vanishes the moment her claim is exposed as fiction. He loves her next in Paris as 'Comrade Arlette', an activist en route to Cuba, an icy, remote lover who denies knowing anything about the Lily?
