The best Mario Vargas Llosa novels
The top 3 according to 21 votes from people: The Feast of the Goat · The War of the End of the World · Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. (Updated Apr 16, 2025.)
The Peruvian Nobel laureate's novels ordered by critics' and readers' rankings: the 1960s Boom on top and the mature Feast of the Goat close behind.
Automatically translated (original in Español). See the original
Top 18
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1
The Feast of the Goat
2000. The end of Trujillo's dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.
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2
The War of the End of the World
1981. The Canudos rebellion in the Brazilian backlands.
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3
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
1977. A young love affair and the craziest radio soaps.
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4
Conversation in the Cathedral
1969. Peru under Odría, in a four-hour talk in a bar.
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5
Who Killed Palomino Molero?
1986. A short crime novel featuring Officer Lituma.
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6
The Time of the Hero
1963. A Lima military academy; the novel that launched the Boom.
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7
Captain Pantoja and the Special Service
1973. A captain organises a "visitors" service for jungle barracks.
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8
The Dream of the Celt
2010. The life of Roger Casement, his first novel after the Nobel.
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9
Death in the Andes
1993. Disappearances in the highlands during the Shining Path years. Planeta Prize.
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10
The Storyteller
1987. A storyteller among the Machiguenga people.
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11
The Green House
1966. A brothel in Piura and the Amazon jungle.
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12
The Bad Girl
2006. A love that keeps coming back for forty years.
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13
The Way to Paradise
2003. Flora Tristán and her grandson Paul Gauguin.
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14
The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto
1997. The fantasies and letters of a Lima aesthete.
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15
The Discreet Hero
2013. A Piura businessman who refuses to pay extortionists.
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16
Harsh Times
2019. The 1954 coup in Guatemala.
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17
Le dedico mi silencio
2023. His last novel, about Peruvian creole music.
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18
The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta
1984. A writer pieces together a revolutionary's life.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (1)
Conversación en La Catedral primera, totalmente de acuerdo. La pregunta de Zavalita es eterna