Los Cuadernos de don Rigoberto por Mario Vargas Llosa

Set in Lima, Peru this is the story of a bizarre love triangle whose participants may be the creations of Don Rigoberto's fertile imagination. The central characters are Rigoberto himself, a dull insurance executive by day, a pornogapher and sexual enthusiast by night; Lucrecia, his second wife; and Alfonso, his angel-faced young son. Husband and wife have been separated for a year because of a sexual encounter between the boy and his stepmother. Rigoberto misses Lucrecia desperately--filling notebooks with his memories, fantasies, and letters he will never send. Meanwhile, Alfonso visits Lucrecia, attempting to both win her love and reunite her with his father. A companion volume to In Praise of the Stepmother--where we were first introduced to these passionate characters--The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto is a compelling mix of fantasy and reality that always keep the reader guessing.