The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta

From the Nobel Prize-winning author. "In a way, this novel about an obscure Peruvian revolutionary is a perfect introduction to Vargas Llosa." -Terrence Rafferty,

The Nation

The Real Life of Alejandro Maytais an astute psychological portrait of a modern revolutionary and a searching account of an old friend's struggle to understand him. First published in English in 1986-at a turning point in Mario Vargas Llosa's career-the novel probes the long and checkered history of radical politics in Latin America.

"With [

The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta

] Mario Vargas Llosa . . . has replaced Gabriel García Márquez as the South American novelist for gringos to catch up on." -John Updike,

The New Yorker



"A glitteringtrompe l'oeilof a novel about the revolutionary temperament-and the nature of fiction." -

The New York Times



"Mario Vargas Llosa [is] one of the master storytellers of our time." -Denis Lynn Heyck,

Chicago Tribune Book World