This was a joy to read. Llosa has a style that means the pages just melt away as you read them, fluid and effortless, yet producing prose of an immensely high standard. It's a kind of writing which doesn't even feel like it needs to be read, you just let it wash over you like warm evening surf. Extremely good. As you might expect (or hope) from a Noel Prize winner.

The story is that of a Peruvian man named Ricardo who, in childhood, meets a girl called Lily and becomes enamoured with her. Later, as an adult, he moves to Paris and meets her again, now using a new name, and they briefly connect. What follows is decades of the same pattern. She comes into his life at times when she is experiencing hardship then, once recovered, she moves on, leaving him for a succession of other men. She marries a french diplomat. Then later moves to London (where they meet again) and is married to a British businessman with an interest in horse racing. She disappears from his life again only to show up in Japan as the mistress of a Yakuza. This last relationship traumatises her and leaves her with psychological and physical scars. But he takes her back and spends his life savings looking after her. Only to see her eventually leave him for another man once more. No matter how much he tries to move on he never can. The romance of his feelings were very compelling and convincingly conveyed (the heart wants what the heart wants).

There's a huge section of 'Of Human Bondage' where Philip keeps taking Mildred back even though she treats him horribly and this book is essentially that... but for the entire thing. Llosa's writing elevates it so it never becomes boring but there comes a point, for everyone, where you start wanting to scream at the book... 'stop taking that bitch back'!! Fortunately, for me, this only really occurred towards the very end so Llosa ultimately sold the story to me reasonably well. Despite the rinse and repeat format, the book is always engaging and entertaining, the high quality prose a major factor in that. It was only at the very end where my interest in these characters was beginning to wane slightly.

I'm not sure this one will live long in the memory, the plot was very basic and the elements and coincidences of the story were occasionally a little melodramatic, but like I said, the writing is so good that it raises the piece up to a level of immense quality. It was wonderful to read.