KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN

Sometimes they talk all night long. In the still darkness of their Buenos Aires prison cell, Molina, a gay window dresser who is self-centred, self-denigrating yet charming re-weaves the glittering and fragile stories of the film he loves, and Valentin, the cynical, fiercely dogmatic revolutionary haunted by memories of a woman he left for the cause, listens. Valentin believes in the just cause that makes all suffering bearable; Molina believes in the magic of love that makes all else endurable. Although they seemingly share little other than a cell, the two form a bond so intimate - and a relationship so profoundly affecting - that only the other could understand. Puig was very much in the circle of popular writers Borges and Garcia Marquez. Remainder mark, 281 page paperback.