Recommendations based on Travesuras de la niña malaby Mario Vargas Llosa

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Love in the Time of Cholera

    by Gabriel García Márquez
    An epic love story spanning decades, exploring the power of true love.

    The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth. A secret relationship blossoms between the two with the help of Fermina's ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Blindness

    by José Saramago
    A society is plunged into chaos when everyone suddenly loses their sight.

    Blindness is the story of an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone in an unnamed city, and the social breakdown that swiftly follows. The novel follows the misfortune of a ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter

    by Mario Vargas Llosa
    A young writer falls in love with his aunt's maid while working at a radio station with a chaotic scriptwriter.

    Set in Peru during the 1950s, it is the story of an 18-year-old student who falls for a 32-year-old divorcee. The novel is based on the author's real life experience. Mario, an aspiring writer, works ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Chronicle of a Death Foretold

    by Gabriel García Márquez
    A murder mystery narrated by the townspeople and tracing the events leading up to the crime.

    The non-linear story, told by an anonymous narrator, begins with the morning of Santiago Nasar's death. The reader learns that Santiago lives with his mother, Placida Linero; the cook, Victoria ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Memories of My Melancholy Whores

    by Gabriel García Márquez
    An elderly man's reflections on love and life, through the lens of a young prostitute.

    An old journalist, who has just celebrated his 90th birthday, seeks sex with a 14 year old prostitute, who is selling her virginity to help her family. Instead of sex, he discovers love for the first ... (Wikipedia)

  6. Hopscotch

    by Julio Cortázar
    A surrealist journey of self-exploration and imaginative play.

    Horacio Oliveira is an Argentinian writer who lives in Paris with his mistress, La Maga, surrounded by a loose-knit circle of bohemian friends who call themselves "the Club." A child's death and La ... (Goodreads)

  7. Norwegian Wood

    by Haruki Murakami
    A young man's journey of love and loss set against the backdrop of the 1960s.

    Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of ... (Goodreads)

  8. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

    by Patrick Süskind
    A murder mystery set in 18th century France, exploring the depths of human obsession.

    An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of ... (Goodreads)

  9. Eva Luna

    by Isabel Allende
    A magical story of a woman's journey of love, adventure and self-discovery.

    Meet New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende’s most enchanting creation, Eva Luna : a lover, a writer, a revolutionary, and above all a storyteller—available for the first time in ebook. Eva ... (Goodreads)

  10. Inés of My Soul

    by Isabel Allende
    A historical novel of a woman's struggles and triumphs in colonial Latin America.

    This historial novel is about the main facts of the life of Inés (an important figure in Chile), written in older Ines' first-person voice, with its intended audience to be Ines' adoptive daughter, ... (Wikipedia)

  11. The Unbearable Lightness of Being

    by Milan Kundera
    A story of love and loss in a politically turbulent Czechoslovakia.

    In The Unbearable Lightness of Being , Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and ... (Goodreads)

  12. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

    by Pablo Neruda
    Collection of poems exploring love, heartache, and the complexities of relationships.

    When it appeared in 1924, this work launched into the international spotlight a young and unknown poet whose writings would ignite a generation. W. S. Merwin's incomparable translation faces the ... (Goodreads)

  13. Daughter of Fortune

    by Isabel Allende
    A young woman's epic journey to find her lost love, and rediscover her roots.

    In Chile during the 1840s, young Chilean Eliza Sommers is raised and educated by English Anglican siblings Rose, Jeremy, and John Sommers. The Victorian-Spinster Rose, strict Jeremy, and sailor John ... (Wikipedia)

  14. Steppenwolf

    by Hermann Hesse
    The inner struggles of a tortured soul as he searches for redemption.

    The book is presented as a manuscript written by its protagonist , a middle-aged man named Harry Haller, who leaves it to a chance acquaintance, the nephew of his landlady. The acquaintance adds a ... (Wikipedia)

  15. When Nietzsche Wept

    by Irvin D. Yalom
    Exploration of the relationship between a doctor and his patient, a tormented philosopher.

    From the acclaimed author of Love's Executioner and Schopenhauer’s Couch , comes a “fascinating…shrewd intellectual thriller” ( Los Angeles Times Book Review ) about pioneering Viennese psychoanalyst ... (Barnes & Noble)

  16. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

    by Haruki Murakami
    A surreal journey of self-discovery, exploring the inner and outer worlds.

    The first part, "The Thieving Magpie", begins with the narrator, Toru Okada, a low-key and unemployed lawyer's assistant, being tasked by his wife, Kumiko, to find their missing cat. Kumiko suggests ... (Wikipedia)

  17. The Feast of the Goat

    by Mario Vargas Llosa
    A political thriller exploring a dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

    The novel's narrative is divided into three distinct strands. One is centred on Urania Cabral, a fictional Dominican character; another deals with the conspirators involved in Trujillo's ... (Wikipedia)

  18. We Need to Talk About Kevin

    by Lionel Shriver
    A mother's struggle to come to terms with the monstrous acts of her disturbed son.

    In the wake of a school massacre conducted by Kevin Khatchadourian, the 15-year-old son of Franklin Plaskett and Eva Khatchadourian, Eva begins writing letters to Franklin in November 2000. She ... (Wikipedia)

  19. The Elementary Particles

    by Michel Houellebecq
    Story of two half-brothers, exploring the depths of humanity and the emptiness of modern life.

    Despite the essentially elaborate scope of the plot revealed in the novel's conclusion, the narrative focuses almost exclusively on the bleak and unrewarding day-to-day lives of the protagonists, two ... (Wikipedia)

  20. The Time in Between

    by María Dueñas
    A remarkable tale of resilience and courage, as a woman embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

    The story begins in 1934. Between Youth and Adulthood... Sira Quiroga is a young and attractive seamstress living a humble life in Madrid with her single mother Dolores. During a festival she meets ... (Wikipedia)

  21. South of the Border, West of the Sun

    by Haruki Murakami
    A married man's reflections on a once-in-a-lifetime love affair, and his struggle to reconcile the past with the present.

    Alternate cover edition, here,. Growing up in the suburbs of post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. ... (Goodreads)

  22. The Master and Margarita

    by Mikhail Bulgakov
    A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.

    The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)

  23. The Hour of the Star

    by Clarice Lispector
    A poor Brazilian girl's life story, illustrating the struggles of the working class.

    The novel starts with the narrator, Rodrigo S.M., discussing what it means to write a story. He addresses the reader directly and spends a lot of time talking about his philosophical beliefs. After ... (Wikipedia)

  24. The Elegance of the Hedgehog

    by Muriel Barbery
    A story of two unlikely outcasts who find solace and comfort in each other's company.

    The story revolves mainly around the characters of Renée Michel and Paloma Josse, residents of an upper-middle class Left Bank apartment building at 7 Rue de Grenelle – one of the most elegant ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Pedro Páramo

    by Juan Rulfo
    A man returns to his hometown in search of his father, discovering the ghostly inhabitants.

    A classic of Mexican modern literature about a haunted village. As one enters Juan Rulfo's legendary novel, one follows a dusty road to a town of death. Time shifts from one consciousness to another ... (Goodreads)

  26. The Angel's Game

    by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
    A writer's journey through a supernatural world of secrets and lies.

    The Angel's Game is set in Barcelona in the 1920s and 1930s and follows a young writer, David Martin. In a once-abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, Martín makes his living by writing ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Like Water for Chocolate

    by Laura Esquivel
    Magical tale of forbidden love, crossed by cultural and family traditions.

    The book is divided into 12 sections named after the months of the year, starting in January and ending in December. Each section begins with a Mexican recipe . The chapters connect each dish to an ... (Wikipedia)

  28. La Dame aux Camélias

    by Alexandre Dumas (Fils)
    A young woman's descent into a life of debauchery and its consequences.

    One of the greatest love stories of all time, this novel has fascinated generations of readers. Dumas's subtle and moving portrait of a woman in love is based on his own love affair with one of the ... (Goodreads)

  29. Stoner

    by John Williams
    An academic's life of quiet desperation, finding solace in literature.

    William Stoner is born on a small farm in 1891. After high school, the county agent advises he go to agriculture school. Stoner enrolls in the University of Missouri , where all agriculture students ... (Wikipedia)

  30. The Iron King

    by Maurice Druon
    Epic historical fiction of the Middle Ages, as dynasties pay the price of ambition.

    Set in the 14th century during the reigns of the last five kings of the direct Capetian dynasty and the first two kings of the House of Valois , the series begins as the French King Philip the Fair , ... (Wikipedia)