The Discreet Hero

A novel by Nobel Prize in Literature and Prince of Asturias Award for Literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, in which two men, put to the test by life, discover the true meaning of courage and loyalty.

One of the best books of 2013 according to Babelia and El Cultural from El Mundo.

The Discreet Hero narrates the parallel stories of two characters: the orderly and endearing Felícito Yanaqué, a small businessman from Piura, who is being extorted; and Ismael Carrera, a successful businessman, owner of an insurance company in Lima, who devises a surprising revenge against his two lazy sons who wanted him dead.

Both characters are, in their own way, discreet rebels who try to take charge of their own destinies, as both Ismael and Felícito challenge the course of events. While Ismael defies all the conventions of his class, Felícito holds on to a few maxims to confront the blackmail. They are not vigilantes, but they rise above the pettiness of their surroundings to live according to their ideals and desires.

Old acquaintances from the Vargas Llosa world appear in these pages: Sergeant Lituma and the Unconquerables, Don Rigoberto, Doña Lucrecia and Fonchito, all now moving in a very prosperous Peru.

A book full of humor, with elements typical of melodrama, where Piura and Lima are no longer physical spaces, but kingdoms of the imagination populated by the characters of the great writer that is Mario Vargas Llosa.

Critics have said...
"Mario Vargas Llosa's writing has shaped our image of South America and has its own chapter in the history of contemporary literature. In his early years, he was a renovator of the novel; today, he is an epic poet. His great embrace encompasses all literary genres."
Per Wästberg, Chairman of the Nobel Committee

"Few labyrinths are as pleasant and reasonable as this novel by Vargas Llosa."
José-Carlos Mainer, Babelia (El País)

"These pages show the extraordinary way in which Mario Vargas Llosa masters the mysteries of fiction and the art of the novel, with an ending as surprising as it is wonderful for its unexpectedness."
Fernando R. Lafuente, ABC Cultural (ABC)

"With The Discreet Hero, we enjoy the mastery to which the best Vargas Llosa has accustomed us."
J. A. Masoliver Ródenas, Cultura/s (La Vanguardia)

"All his work (journalistic and literary, including his essays here) is marked by the search, in the nooks and crannies of the soul and power, for those elements that make people wicked or sublime."
Juan Cruz