In his second novel, La casa verde (1966; translation by Gregory Rabassa published as The Green House 1968), Vargas Llosa again took experiences from his own life and created a work about the whole of Peru. His visit with an Amazonian tribe as part of an anthropological expedition as well as his experience of a brothel in the town of Piura establish the basis for a meeting of two ends of Peruvian culture that seldom occurs. The novel begins when two nuns and a sergeant with his helpers steal two girls from the Aguaruna tribe but the girls escape.

Vargas Llosa's acceptance speech in 1967 for an award for Green House has been published as La literatura es fuego (Literature Is Fire). In this speech, Vargas Llosa summarized his view of the writer. He said that the writer has an obligation to assist...