Reading Order
Conversation in the CathedralVargas Llosa Conversation in the Cathedral Reading Order
Mario Vargas Llosa's Conversation in the Cathedral (1969) is one of the great Latin American novels — the four-hour conversation in a Lima bar between Santiago Zavala and the mixed-race driver Ambrosio, who knew each other sixteen years earlier during the dictatorship of Manuel A. Odría. The novel's complex temporal structure — cutting between the 1950s and 1960s, between multiple characters and their intersecting stories — creates a portrait of Lima society under dictatorship that is simultaneously an intimate personal story and a comprehensive social anatomy. Vargas Llosa described the novel as his attempt to do for Lima what Flaubert did for provincial France in Sentimental Education: expose the full texture of a society through the experiences of characters from every level of it.
Where to start
Conversation in the Cathedral
Complete Conversation in the Cathedral Book List
- 1Buy
Conversation in the Cathedral
Mario Vargas Llosa·1969·Vargas Llosa's most ambitious novel — the conversation between Santiago and Ambrosio that unspools twenty years of Lima history under Odría's dictatorship; demanding but one of the supreme achievements of Latin American fiction - 2Buy
The Time of the Hero
Mario Vargas Llosa·1963·Vargas Llosa's debut novel — life at the Leoncio Prado military academy in Lima; a more accessible introduction to his fictional world and his technique of multiple perspectives - 3Buy
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
Mario Vargas Llosa·1977·Vargas Llosa's most charming and accessible novel — his fictionalized memoir of his teenage marriage to his aunt and his friendship with a soap opera writer; the most accessible entry point to his fiction and the best first book for most readers - 4Buy
The Feast of the Goat
Mario Vargas Llosa·2000·Vargas Llosa's novel about the last days of Trujillo's dictatorship in the Dominican Republic — his finest late novel and a direct companion to Conversation in the Cathedral in its concern with the psychology and sociology of Latin American dictatorship
Conversation in the Cathedral — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Conversation in the Cathedral difficult?
Yes — the novel's temporal structure is genuinely demanding. Multiple storylines are woven together without clear markers, and the conversation between Santiago and Ambrosio cuts in and out of different time periods and different characters' perspectives. Most readers find that the first hundred pages are the most demanding and that the technique becomes legible once you understand the pattern.
What order should I read Vargas Llosa in?
Start with Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter for the most accessible and charming entry point, or The Feast of the Goat for his most polished late work. Conversation in the Cathedral is his most ambitious novel and rewards reading after you know his style. The Time of the Hero and The Green House are important early works.
What is Conversation in the Cathedral about?
The novel begins with a chance meeting between Santiago Zavala, now a journalist, and Ambrosio, now a dog catcher, sixteen years after they knew each other. Over a four-hour conversation in a bar called 'The Cathedral,' they reconstruct twenty years of their lives — Santiago's childhood in an upper-class Lima family with a corrupt father, and Ambrosio's life as the driver for that father and for a powerful government official during the dictatorship of Manuel A. Odría in the 1950s.
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