A rare study of passion ambition and the determined pursuit of greatness in the face of illness death and conservative forces The Way to Paradise shows a contemporary master at the peak of his powers. In Mario Vargas Llosas latest novel there are two stories - that of Paul Gaugin the Post-Impressionist painter and that of Paul Gaugins grandmother Flora Tristan . . . what makes this novel so illuminating is the continuity between their parallel lives . . . Gaugin and Flora may have thought they were masters of their own destiny but this novel powerfully suggests that even that may have been an illusion - like paradise itself. Literary Review The Way to Paradise weaves an extraordinary rich double fantasia around Gaugins life strenuously explores qualities in the works and sets moral issues in a far wilder more real historical world . . . Riveting stuff beautifully written wild exact and visually stunning. Independent