The Old Man Who Read Love Stories: A Novel

Written by Luis Sepúlveda

Narrated by Ian Guerra

“Gripping and passionate . . . keenly recounted . . . full of poetry.”—New York Times

Now in a beautiful new edition, the spellbinding classic tale of man and nature, honor, and adventure, in which the peaceful life of an aging, book-loving widower in the Ecuadorean jungle is upended when an ignorant tourist provokes a mother ocelot.

Antonio José Bolivar Proaño lives quietly in a river town in the rain-soaked jungle of Ecuador that is slowly being overrun by tourists and opportunists. Having lost his wife decades earlier, he takes refuge in books—paperback novels of faraway places and bittersweet love, delivered to him by the dentist who visits the village twice a year.

One day, a greedy trader pushes nature too far, setting an enraged mother ocelot on a bloody rampage through the village. The old man, a hunter who once lived among the Shuar Indians and knows the jungle better than anyone, is pressured by the village's detested mayor to join the expedition to kill the animal. Reluctantly. the old man is forced into the middle of a raging conflict between man and nature that will end in a powerfully climactic confrontation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Mar 19, 2024
• ISBN: 9780063349056

Luis Sepúlveda

Luis Sepúlveda, born in Chile in 1949, was a novelist, journalist, and playwright who once worked in the Amazon for UNESCO. Politically involved with left-wing movements, he was imprisoned, tortured and sentenced to twenty-eight years in prison after the military coup in Chile, but was able to go into exile thanks to the efforts of Amnesty International. He worked as a press correspondent in Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, and Central America, and was an activist for Greenpeace and other humanitarian causes. He received numerous prizes, including the International Grinzane Cavour Award, the Tigre Juan, the France Culture Etrangêre Award and the Taormina Award for Literary Excellence. He died in Spain in 2020.

Reviews for The Old Man Who Read Love Stories

[Nurse85 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A small book that holds a great message. In 144 pages, it can't be told more and better. A pleasant reading that transports you to the Amazon. With beautiful language, rich in nuances, full of emotions and imbued with the rich culture of the area. It is truly wonderful the passion and beauty with which Latin American authors write.

It is well worth reading for its message of defending nature as it helps reflect on the damage humanity is doing to this planet, which is the only home we know.

Unforgettable characters, especially its protagonist, that humble old man, intelligent, defender of the jungle, full of principles who read romance novels to forget human barbarity.

100% recommended. (Translated from Spanish)

[Jschez · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is a very beautiful book, incredibly well-written, a book about nature, invasion, values, and respect... it is a very special book. And its protagonist, Antonio José Bolívar Proaño, I love; I don't know how to define him, he is simple and complex at the same time, I really like his way of doing and transmitting. (Translated from Spanish)

[Chanel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I must say that thanks to the review by @mariabv2012, I have come to know this author, Luis Sepúlveda, and this tremendous work of his that I loved, a true gem translated into 60 languages.

It tells the story of Antonio José Bolívar Proaño, who lives in an Amazonian region called El Idilio and coexists with an indigenous tribe called the Shuar, from whom he learns their customs and way of living in the jungle.

This work makes one feel that there are humans so selfish that they don't care about destroying nature just to take a trophy, but also that there are people who want to fight against these human predators. I hope that we increasingly become aware that we must respect our environment without believing ourselves to be superior to the poor animals, who live unaware of our evil. (Translated from Spanish)

[Díaz Rolando · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read it in one go; I started in the afternoon while enjoying a juice, and before I knew it, I had finished it. It was impossible for me to put it off until later n_n I really loved the way Luis Sepúlveda has used to show us that world which Western man (let's remember that the West is Europe, its example in America is the United States, and the rest is "barbarism" according to the globalizing vision) has tried, by all means, to subjugate. (Translated from Spanish)

[eukeni · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I did not know Luis Sepulveda until this book. It has hooked me from the first moment with its magical realism and environmentalism. Sometimes I feel like the protagonist, fighting against the elements and escaping with books, although in my case, love books are not my favorites. What has caught my attention the most is the way he describes animals and the indigenous people wrongly called "jibaros." It is a sad and reclamatory book, consistent with nature. Highly recommended. (Translated from Spanish)

[Mariano S · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First book I read by Luis Sepulveda and I loved it. It has everything I like in a book: a story you can't put down, an amazing character like Antonio José Bolivar Proaño, a lesson on the grimness of the "white" man's invasion in the Amazon, an insight into how the Shuar live in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and the "coexistence" between the spectacular flora and fauna in the Latin American jungle. Great book by the Chilean author. First five stars of the year. (Translated from Spanish)

[Madiita · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read it in my forties because a television program recommended it to me. I quite liked the story and felt empathy and affection for the old man. (Translated from Spanish)

[Erica Soledad Sayal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Undoubtedly, it evokes the great Gabo; the way of recounting the events is irrefutable proof of that. A book to enjoy from beginning to end and that shows that, despite everything, reading saves... Saves from loneliness, heartbreak, helps to overcome grief and other hardships. Ideal for teenagers. I recommend it. (Translated from Spanish)

[BlancaMaRu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have really enjoyed reading this book. I didn't expect it to be so entertaining. I laughed a lot at the jokes and situations the author presents. The story surprised me because I couldn't stop reading; I needed to know more about what was happening in the old man's life. Additionally, it presents a very interesting critique of colonialism and the little respect it has for nature and pre-existing cultures. (Translated from Spanish)

[LilyRG · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What descriptions of white barbarism towards the wise nature of the Amazon and its people! (Translated from Spanish)

[Andrea Milano · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A book that can be read in a day. Not only because of the number of pages but because of the pace and the way Sepúlveda narrates that invites you to read effortlessly and with pleasure. Antonio José Bolívar Proaño lives in a village in the Amazon, and his two most prized possessions are his dentures and a magnifying glass he uses to read those love novels that come into his hands thanks to the complicity of the village dentist. Novels of idyllic loves that make him blush and question his own love life, loving only one woman. In the midst of those hours he enjoys reading, lying in his hammock, tragedy stains the village with blood, and the jungle claims the lives of humans and animals. But... when you reach the end, it is impossible not to wonder who is really the victim? The hunters or the beasts that succumb under the power of their weapons? A story that, filled with moral values and feelings, invites reflection. (Translated from Spanish)

[LHDelgado · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A short and wonderful book for a couple of afternoons of reading, featuring a grand journey through the Amazon filled with beauty, danger, and an old man who read romance novels. A critique of man who destroys out of greed and a reminder that there is always someone wanting to care for nature. (Translated from Spanish)

[MarielaO · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

At first glance, we might think it's an adventure book, an old man going to hunt a small tiger.
But no, it is much more than that; it confronts civilization—ours—with its laws, its strength, and its arrogance of believing it is the only way to live, and the jungle with all its magic, its balance, its diversity, its rules, its inhabitants, and its vulnerability.
On the border of both worlds, in a place called El Idilio, lives the old man. He comes from our world, but poverty brought him to that place; he knows the jungle, lived with the Shuar, but could not become one of them, which is why he was expelled back to the border, where he now lives with the bare minimum.
This old man loves reading from our world and learned to respect nature as a way of living in the jungle.
We should listen to this old man. (Translated from Spanish)

[Yubiwa70 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I increasingly opt for novels that want to, can, and know how to tell something, concrete, of any style, that you can, if life allows you, read in one go.
I read it in two sittings and enjoyed it like few others.
Despite the title, the fascinating thing about the old man is his wisdom, which he believes is stolen and undeserved, about the jungle and survival without harming it.
Barely hinted forgiveness that would deserve a separate novel.
Brilliant. (Translated from Spanish)

[Florilegio · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Of those novels that leave such an imprint that they transform the world for the better. (Translated from Spanish)

[Enaut · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Of the books that I was forced to read in school, this is the one I remember best. Whenever I see it in a second-hand store, I buy it and read it again. (Translated from Spanish)

[paloma · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an extraordinary tale about the Amazon jungle and the relationship between man and his environment; it goes without saying that we are very cruel and predators of our surroundings. (Translated from Spanish)

[Beabargar · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Antonio José Bolivar Proaño is an old man who lives in El Idilio, in a remote village in the middle of the Amazon. Antonio José Bolívar Proaño has learned to survive in those lands, to know them like the back of his hand, to hunt, and since he accidentally discovered that he could read, he spends his free time reading his favorite novels... love novels...

I found it to be a beautiful novel that may indeed talk a bit about clever and intelligent people, but what I liked the most is the contrast of the protagonist who, living in the middle of the jungle, has the sensitivity to cry like a child while reading love novels. (Translated from Spanish)

[Maestrat72 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A small delight. A true delicacy to savor word by word. A story in which the content is as important as the container. What a pen Luis Sepúlveda has!
"The woman [...] wore garments that [...] continued to exist in the stubborn corners of memory, in the same places where the tsetse fly of solitude hides." Where does one learn to write like that?
The descriptions of the jungle, the characters, and the situations have seemed exceptional to me. A love song to nature and literature. A story full of sensitivity. It is worth dedicating the few hours it takes to read it. (Translated from Spanish)

[Alejandro Mansilla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent description of every detail that makes you feel in the middle of the jungle and relive the experience of that old man. (Translated from Spanish)

[canino68 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

You know that unexpected gift, surprising, of little material value, but huge in meaning, that makes you smile shyly and say: thank you.
That is this novel by Luis Sepulveda.
The same harshness of the dry Mexican plains, the struggle of the human being against the harshness of the environment, taken to the humidity of the Amazon.
"And they ventured into the jungle," from there, an exaltation of nature, of animals, the natives, and an acknowledgment of the wisdom of the old tanner, respectful of his surroundings, who resists ignorance by reading love novels.
I recommend it ???? (Translated from Spanish)

[LeonBordenave · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful story. To transport oneself for a while to the Ecuadorian Amazon. (Translated from Spanish)

[BeesIsrael · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

With great mastery, the author manages to present the jungle as a magical territory, with its own laws that go beyond human understanding. And the old reader of novels is a fine instrument that allows Luis Sepulveda to return to nature its original ferocity. What a great novel. (Translated from Spanish)

[GirlVander · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

One of the books that I liked the least, despite being a recognized work in many places. The man tells his story in the middle of the jungle and his difficulties, but I was not convinced by the time period or the characters. I have to be thankful that the book doesn't have many pages, as I was bored to death. Honestly, I read it for a language assignment. (Translated from Spanish)

[paula1970 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book by Luis Sepúlveda, with which he achieved recognition and received several awards, tells of the impact the equatorial jungle had on the author, which he explored for two years after leaving Chile in exile. This very short story, like almost all of his novels, is nothing but a good story about man and the jungle. (Translated from Spanish)

[Maave · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

AN OLD MAN WHO READ LOVE NOVELS (1989) - Luis Sepúlveda

The idyll, that little Macondo that Sepúlveda recreates for us, a place lost in the jungle, where “...Antonio José Bolívar Proaño preferred not to think, keeping the wells of memory open to fill them with the joys and torments of loves more prolonged than time.” That place where he got lost to make it his own alongside the Shuar people and that brought him back to his world through those sad, painful, and truthful love novels, from which he will be separated by a deadly struggle in a war that is not his but that will redeem his conscience to be able to return to those novels that sometimes, like in this case, brings us closer to an exquisite prose that reminds us of Márquez but creates its own Gondola of the Nangaritza. (Translated from Spanish)

[Mak1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved it.. the brief is good, twice as good. (Translated from Spanish)