The bad girl by Mario Vargas Llosa
The plot of the story is quite similar to Flaubert's Madame Bovary: good, well mannered boy falls madly in love for the attractive new girl, who treats him with cruelty and keeps abandoning him exactly when he thinks his dreams will come true.
Ricardo's love for the bad girl, whose identity changes with each move to a new country, verges on obsession though he's forever forgiving her for all the countless times she disappears from his life, a perpetual occurance which begins in the 1950s in Peru and ends in France in the 90s.
His work as a translator in Paris is the only way he can sometimes escape the bad girl's lies, though he knows he can never forget her.
Throughout the book, you always question why the bad girl deserts Ricardo for wealthier men, only to come back to him, seemingly out of spite but maybe, ultimately out of love.
10/10!
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