The Storyteller (Spanish: El Hablador) is a novel by Peruvian author and Literature Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa.

The story tells of Saúl Zuratas, a university student who leaves civilization and becomes a "storyteller" for the Machiguenga Native Americans.

One side argues that tribes should be left alone to live as they have for millennia, leaving them full access and use of their ancient lands.

These chapters are set in San Marcos University, the radio station where Mario is employed, and several pubs around the city.

Odd number chapters are narrated by Saúl Zaratas as the Storyteller for the Machiguenga and are devoted entirely to telling the history of the tribe and its methods of survival.

The narrator creates a commentary for public television to shed light on the plight of the Machiguenga, with the hope of convincing himself that the tribe is in better shape for the interventions of modern civilization imposed upon them.

Based on hints, chance encounters and indirect evidence, the narrator comes to the conclusion that Saúl has not only disappeared into the Peruvian jungle but has, somehow, become a tribal storyteller of the Machiguengas.

Saúl develops a deep connection to and appreciation for the Machiguenga Indians during his time at college and apparently trades in his life in modern civilization in order to travel amongst the tribes as a storyteller or "hablador."

By studying the Machiguengas, learning their language, and teaching them English and religion, some may argue that the native Indians are being saved from extinction in modern civilization.

Others argue that the linguists and missionaries are a "tentacle of American imperialism which, under the cover of doing scientific research, has been engaged in gathering intelligence and has taken the first steps toward a neocolonist penetration of the cultures of the Amazonian Indian.

The narrator, Mario, begins to tell the story of Saul (who he suspects is the subject in a mysterious photograph displayed in a gallery in Florence).

When a drunk man calls him a monster and tells him to keep his face off the streets, Saúl simply smiles and replies, "but if this is the only one I've got, what do you suggest I do?"

The early parts of the novel begin with creation myths which explain the nomadic, non possessive nature of the Machiguenga people.

"The Catholic religion was a breeze, a measly half-hour Mass every Sunday and Communion every first Friday of the month that was over in no time."

(p. 9) This passage shows the author's view of religion as a ritual that requires effort rather than a strong belief system by which to live life.

At this role, Saúl hybridizes religious stories from the Bible with the native mythology, demonstrating his views of relativism.

The academic world, represented in the novel by the University of San Marcos and the Summer Institute of Linguistics, is actively engaged by the author.

He not only completes his studies at the University of San Marcos in Literature, but he also participates in expeditions done by the Summer Institute of Linguistics.

In fact, it is revealed in the beginning that the author is in Italy "to read Dante and Machiavelli and look at Renaissance paintings for a couple of months in solitude."

He felt that "The absence of law and institutions exposed the jungle natives to the worst humiliations and acts of injustice by colonists, missionaries and adventurers, who had come to impose their will through the use of terror and force.".

Since its original publication 25 years ago, "The Storyteller has become a classic and is required reading for most anthropology students in the universities of the United States and South America".

[5] The "storyteller" (hablador) of the title refers primarily to a position within Machiguenga culture—to a person who preserves and recites the culture's history and beliefs to the rest of the tribe.

The narrator, himself a writer, is fascinated by this type of person in various cultures around the world, such as the Celtic seanchaí, which he refers to for comparison; he is even more intrigued to find that in the twenty years since his first encounter with habladores, they seem to have disappeared—none of the Machiguenga will even acknowledge the storyteller exists.

The "storyteller" has a secondary reference to the narrator himself, a writer who briefly runs a television show that tries to copy the work of the hablador by presenting assorted stories of cultural significance.

A clear question brought into mind by the novel is: Is it better to back off and leave native tribes such as the Machiguenga alone, or will their lives be worse off without outside influence?

Ursula K. Le Guin, NY Times correspondent for the book review supplement, briefly summarized her reactions to the novel, describing the Storyteller as a science fiction novel; it portrays a fictitious tribe that has been immune to acculturation and Western influence and its influence on a Jewish ethnologist seeking to learn more about their culture.

She gives the book an impressive review, praising Vargas Llosa's ability to discuss the role of Western influence on the native and the overpowering impact of primitive culture on the white man.

"Written in the direct, precise, often vernacular prose that Vargas Llosa embues with elegance and sophistication, this is a powerful call to the author's compatriots--and to other nations--to cease despoiling the environment" (Publishers Weekly 1989).

with enormous skill and formal grace, Vargas Llosa weaves through the mystery surrounding the fate of Saul Zuratas."

Upon his acceptance of the Nobel Prize, Peter Englund of the Swedish Academy referred to Llosa as a "divinely gifted storyteller."