The discreet hero
By: Mario Vargas Llosa ; translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman
Contributors: Grossman, Edith, 1936- translator
Edition: First American edition.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 326
ISBN-13: 9780374146740
Subjects: Fiction; Extortion; Businessmen
Work titles: Héroe discreto
Description: A successful insurance company owner whose two lazy sons want him permanently out of the way crosses paths with a blackmail victim in Peru.

"The Discreet Hero, follows two fascinating characters whose lives are destined to intersect: neat, endearing Felícito Yanaqué, a small businessman in Piura, Peru, who finds himself the victim of blackmail; and Ismael Carrera, a successful owner of an insurance company in Lima, who cooks up a plan to avenge himself against the two lazy sons who want him dead. Felícito and Ismael are, each in his own way, quiet, discreet rebels: honorable men trying to seize control of their destinies in a social and political climate where all can seem set in stone, predetermined. They are hardly vigilantes, but each is determined to live according to his own personal ideals and desires--which means forcibly rising above the pettiness of their surroundings. The Discreet Hero is also a chance to revisit some of our favorite players from previous Vargas Llosa novels: Sergeant Lituma, Don Rigoberto, Doña Lucrecia, and Fonchito are all here in a prosperous Peru. Vargas Llosa sketches Piura and Lima vividly--and the cities become not merely physical spaces but realms of the imagination populated by his vivid characters" --