To you I now dedicate my silence

In this novel, Mario Vargas Llosa returns to his native Peru with the story of a man who dreams of uniting his country through music and who, while writing a book to embody this vision, descends into madness. Toño Azpilcueta lives and breathes for Creole music – there is no greater expert or collector to rival him. Yet he makes a living writing articles about music for trashy magazines that barely pay him a pittance. His fate is sealed one evening when he hears a performance by an unknown guitarist, in whom he recognises a musical genius and whose biography he decides to write… The latest novel by the master of Latin American literature, Mario Vargas Llosa, is full of passion, music and mystery. The secret its hero pursues reflects the contradictions of his entire country. “Thanks to his infallible sense of narrative rhythm, his consistency in handling dates and historical facts, backed up by astounding research, and the masterful economy of his dialogues, his rebellious writing shakes the world in the same way as the heroes of the chivalric romances he used to read about.” El Periódico