I Give You My Silence

'A titan of Latin American literature.' New York Times

'A powerhouse of literary energy.' William Boyd



The final novel from Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, a playful and powerful love letter to Peruvian culture.





One evening, Toño Azpilcueta, a Peruvian folk music journalist, witnesses a performance that changes his life. Toño becomes obsessed with hearing the virtuoso guitarist Lalo Molfino play again, but the next he hears, Molfino is dead.





So begins a quest to uncover the story of this unforgettable musician. Toño tracks down the priest who rescued Molfino from a rubbish heap and raised him, the musicians who played with him and the girl who claimed to love him. Toño decides that he will write a book that will not only immortalize the hero of the Creole vals but will establish the music he loved as a unifying symbol for his fractured country. But the more Toño writes, the more he struggles to keep control of his story. As his savings dwindle and his paranoia rises, it becomes clear that writing a masterpiece is more complicated and consuming than he had realised.



Mario Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010. He also won the Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's most distinguished literary honour. His many works include Sabers and Utopias, The Discreet Hero, The Feast of the Goat, The Bad Girl, and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. He died in April 2025.



Adrian Nathan West is a novelist, essayist, and translator. His work has appeared in New York Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and London Review of Books.