The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto

Don Rigoberto is a grey insurance executive by day and a dedicated sexual enthusiast by night. He misses Lucrecia, his estranged second wife, and fills notebooks with memory and sexual fantasy. They separated a year earlier after a sexual encounter between his pre-pubescent son Alfonso and Alfonso's stepmother. Alfonso has an angelic appearance and apparently diabolical impulses, and seems more seducer than seduced. He visits Lucrecia without his father's knowledge. Both adults receive erotic letters each believes the other sent, though Alfonso may have written them. The novel explores imagination and physical reality.

Why You Should Read?

• Follow Don Rigoberto as he fills his notebooks with memory and sexual fantasy during his separation.
• Meet Alfonso, a strange fey boy whose angelic appearance hides apparently diabolical impulses.
• Explore the mystery of highly erotic letters that may connect Rigoberto, Lucrecia, and Alfonso.
• Experience the novel's confusion between imagination and physical reality through Don Rigoberto's notebooks.

About the Author

Mario Vargas Llosa was born Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa and lived from 28 March 1936 to 13 April 2025. He was Peruvian and worked in fiction, journalism, essays, and politics. In the 1960s he became known worldwide for The Time of the Hero, The Green House, and Conversation in The Cathedral. His books included comedy, mystery, history, and political suspense. In 1967 he received the Rómulo Gallegos Prize. The Prince of Asturias Award came in 1986. In 2010 he was given the Nobel Prize in Literature. His homeland shaped his writing.