Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter

Mario Vargas Llosa's masterful, multilayered novel is set in the Lima, Peru, of the author's youth, where a young student named Marito is toiling away in the news department of a local radio station. His young life is disrupted by two arrivals.The first is his aunt Julia, recently divorced and thirteen years older, with whom he begins a secret affair. The second is a manic radio scriptwriter named Pedro Camacho, whose racy, vituperative soap operas are holding the city's listeners in thrall. Pedro chooses young Marito to be his confidant as he slowly goes insane.Interweaving the story of Marito's life with the ever-more-fevered tales of Pedro Camacho, Vargas Llosa's novel is hilarious, mischievous, and masterful, a classic named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review. Mario Vargas Llosa is Peru's foremost writer. In 1995 he was awarded the Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's most distinguished literary honor, and the Jerusalem Prize.  He received the PEN/Nabokov Award in 2002.  His many other works include The Feast of the Goat, The Storyteller, and, most recently, The Bad Girl. He lives in London. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter is Mario Vargas Llosa's autobiographical novel about a forbidden love affair, a manic radio scriptwriter, and the hilarious trials of an aspiring fiction writer.  The multilayered novel is set in the Lima, Peru, of the author's youth, where a young student named Marito is toiling away in the news department of a local radio station. His young life is disrupted by two arrivals. The first is his aunt Julia, recently divorced and thirteen years older than Marito. The two begin a secret affair. The second is a radio scriptwriter named Pedro Camacho, whose racy, vituperative soap operas hold the city's listeners in thrall.  Camacho chooses young Marito as his only confidant as he slowly goes insane. Interweaving the story of Marito's life with the ever-more-fevered tales of Pedro Camacho, Vargas Llosa's novel is hilarious, mischievous, and masterful.  This classic work was named one of the best books of 1982 by The New York Times. "Funny, extravagant . . . A wonderfully comic novel almost unbelievably rich in character, place and event."—Los Angeles Times Book Review "Funny, extravagant . . . A wonderfully comic novel almost unbelievably rich in character, place and event."—Los Angeles Times Book Review "Uproarious entertainment . . . For sheer wit, imagination, and high style, this soap opera of love can't be beat."—The Christian Science Monitor "One of South America's finest contemporary writers."—The Times (London)