The Peru of the near future is in the throes of an insurgency.A revolutionary army is taking on the failing government and the US Marines, and the cities have become vast garbage-strewn slums.In the midst of this, the narrator attempts to reconstruct the story of his friend, a modern revolutionary.In The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta, Mario Vargas Llosa offers not just a brilliant psychological portrait, but also a searing account of Latin America's political scene.