Peruvian Literature: The Green House

The Green House
Mario Vargas Llosa

Set simultaneously in the arid city of Piura -concretely in the marginal neighbourhood of La Mangachería- and a in a region of the Amazon jungle inhabited by primitive tribes and buccaneers, The green house interweaves different stories that apparently run parallel, until their ultimate, unexpected convergence.

Moving forwards amidst continues jumps in time and changes in the level of reality, Vargas Llosa narrates the stories of bizarre and dramatic characters.

The most memorable include the fugitive adventurer Fushía, who tried to swindle a bigger fish; la Selvática (the jungle-woman), sergeant Lituma, and the bunch of soldiers eager to leave their Amazon military post, in the middle of nowhere; and the harp-player Don Anselmo, founder of the mythical brothel named The Green House, at the fringe of Piura, just where the devouring desert begins.

A magnificent novel that portrays a different, less known face of Peru.

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