The Cinco Esquinas crossroads, which gives its name to one of Lima’s liveliest districts, sets the stage for a brilliant comedy of manners full of twists, centered on a vast political, media and sexual scandal. A few compromising photos, a blackmailer, a sordid murder: the gutter press could not dream of better. The rich engineer “Quique” Cárdenas, along with figures from finance, show business and the highest spheres of power, are spattered by the affair, while a plucky journalist sets out to untangle truth from lies under the dictatorship of Fujimori. A dazzling novel by the Nobel laureate.