The Neighborhood

From the Nobel Laureate comes a politically charged detective novel weaving through the underbelly of Peruvian privilege. In the 1990s, during the turbulent and deeply corrupt years of Alberto Fujimoris presidency, two wealthy couples of Limas high society become embroiled in a disturbing vortex of erotic 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 exposes. 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, Enriques wife is in the midst of a passionate and secret affair with the wife of Enriques lawyer and best friend. When Garro shows up murdered, the two couples are thrown into a whirlwind of navigating Perus unspoken laws and customs, while the staff of the magazine embark on their greatest expose yet. Ironic and sensual, provocative and redemptive, the novel swirls into the kind of restless realism that has become Mario Vargas Llosas signature style. A twisting, unpredictable tale, The Neighborhood is at once a scathing indictment of Fujimoris regime and a crime thriller that evokes the vulgarity of freedom in a corrupt system.