's novel "The Neighborhood" (Cinco Esquinas in Spanish) has been included in the
The year's notable fiction, poetry, and non-fiction works were selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.
"This novel, a gritty depiction of a society grounded in corruption, hedonism, and violence, may be a sendup of life in Peru before the downfall of Alberto Fujimori in 2000, but it has contemporary relevance for many countries," the editors expressed.
"When civic life becomes degraded,
Vargas Llosa demonstrates, everyone is affected, the rich and the poor, the high and the low, the victim and the victimizer," they added.
The story
In the 1990s, during the years of Alberto Fujimori's presidency, two wealthy couples of Lima's high society become embroiled in a disturbing vortex of adventures and politically driven blackmail.
One day Enrique, a high-profile businessman, receives a visit from Rolando Garro, the editor of a notorious magazine that specializes in salacious exposés. Garro presents Enrique with lewd pictures from an old business trip and demands that he invest in the magazine. Enrique refuses, and the next day the pictures are on the front page.
Meanwhile, Enrique's wife is in the midst of a passionate and secret affair with the wife of Enrique's lawyer and best friend. When Garro shows up murdered, the two couples are thrown into a whirlwind of navigating Peru's unspoken laws and customs, while the staff of the magazine embarks on their greatest exposé yet.
(END) DTK/MVB