Heartbreak Tango Signed First Edition Reference

Boquitas pintadas (Sudamericana, 1969; English: Dutton, 1973, as Heartbreak Tango, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine) tells the story of a small Argentine town through letters, diary entries, police reports, and tango lyrics, centering on the death of a local Don Juan from tuberculosis. The novel’s title comes from a tango lyric, and its structure mirrors the form of the serialized romance — it was originally published in installments in a Buenos Aires magazine.

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed English first (Dutton): $75–$175
• Unsigned English first: $10–$20

Heartbreak Tango is the Puig novel most admired by other Latin American writers — its formal ingenuity in using popular cultural forms as narrative material is even more sophisticated than Kiss of the Spider Woman.