The Green House

$95.00
By Moons Rare Books

6W Mario Vargas Llosa. Translated by Gregory Rabassa. London: Jonathan Cape, 1969. First UK Edition

Notes

Mario Vargas Llosa stands as one of the most prominent, celebrated novelists and essayists to emerge from Latin America, recognized globally as a pillar of the 1960s "Latin American Boom". Born in Arequipa, Peru, his career seamlessly blended a relentless devotion to letters with active political journalism and essay writing. His complex literary style frequently used non-linear, fragmented timelines and multiple overlapping points of view to strip away societal illusions. He achieved historic, widespread acclaim early in his career, eventually winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010 for his fierce maps of power structures and trenchant images of individual resistance. Over a long life spanning nine decades, he crafted monumental fictional achievements, firmly cementing his legacy as a defining voice of the Spanish-language literary world. 

Originally published in Spanish in 1965 as La Casa Verde, this brilliant novel secured the inaugural Rómulo Gallegos Prize and stands as a masterwork of structural ambition. Heavily inspired by a formative journey the author took through the Peruvian Amazon, the narrative kaleidoscope spans over forty years across two wildly contrasting worlds: the dusty, conservative coastal desert town of Piura and the lawless, lush wilderness of the Marañón river jungle. The book weaves together five complex, separate plotlines anchored by a mysterious desert brothel known as the Green House. Through its sprawling cast of characters—including a Japanese fugitive trader, a native soldier named Lituma, and an indigenous girl turned prostitute—the book builds a scathing, non-linear examination of institutional corruption, religious hypocrisy, colonialism, and human exploitation.
Description 
Green canvas binding with gilt lettering to spine. Original dustwrapper. Minor discoloration to top edge. Very fine condition. 
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