The Green House

"Dazzling. . . . An imaginative documentation of nature's sway over man." —New York Times Book Review

From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, an important and passionate novel set in Peru, that explores man’s struggle with both nature and civilization

Vargas Llosa’s classic early novel takes place in Puira, a Peruvian town situated between desert and jungle, and which is torn by boredom and lust. Don Anselmo, a stranger in a black coat, builds a brothel on the outskirts of the town while he charms its innocent people, thus setting of a chain-reaction with extraordinary consequences.

This brothel, called the Green House, brings together the innocent and the corrupt: Bonificia, a young Indian girl saved by the nuns only to become a prostitute: Father Garcia, struggling for the church; and four best friends drawn to both excitement and escape.

The conflicting forces that haunt the Green House evoke a world balanced between savagery and civilization—and one which is cursed by not being able to discern between the two.