Conversation in the Cathedral - Softcover

A monumentally engrossing novel. (Los Angeles Times)

Mario Vargas Llosa has [created] one of the largest narrative efforts in contemporary Latin American letters. (New York Times Book Review)

A powerful exploration of repression, corruption and hypocrisy, along with the ugly prejudices of race and class. (Guardian)

Conversation in the Cathedral takes place in 1950s Peru during the dictatorship of General Ordia. Suspicion, paranoia and blackmail have become part of life. The conversation flows between two individuals, Santiago and Ambrosia, who talk of their tormented lives and of the degradation and frustration that has taken over their town. In this groundbreaking novel, Mario Vargas Llosa explores the mental and moral mechanisms that govern power and the people behind it. It is about identity, the role of a citizen and how a lack of personal freedom can forever scar a nation and its people.