Julio Ramón Ribeyro: The Beach House. Summary and Literary Analysis
Two Peruvian friends nearing their fifties, who have lived in Europe since they were young, meet one summer in Lima and decide to carry out a long-shared project: to find a completely deserted beach on the Peruvian coast and build a house there to retreat from the noise of the world. Ernesto, a painter, and the narrator, a writer, feel what they call “the call of the desert” and set out, summer after summer, on a series of expeditions to the south of the country. On each outing they encounter splendid landscapes and unexpected obstacles: coves already occupied by fishermen, locals who eye them with suspicion, sandstorms, breakdowns in the middle of the desert, friends who lead them off course, and even a ten-liter jug of pisco that changes the direction of one trip. Each failure, however, seems to make them more stubborn in their search for their imagined refuge.
