The Discreet Hero

In his latest endeavor, Nobel Prize winner Vargas Llosa returns to his Peruvian roots and a contemporary milieu in two alternating narratives from the business world. In one, set in the author's famed Piura, Felícito Yanaqué is being blackmailed; under no circumstances will he give in to the extortionists, even after one of his stores is burned and his mistress is kidnapped. In the other thread, Ismael Carrera marries his house servant Armida, a union that his two sons oppose vehemently even when the elderly Ismael suddenly dies; this story arc is padded somewhat by a secondary plot involving the ambiguity of an imaginary friend. In the author's typical style, the two story lines converge at the end when Armida seeks refuge from the two ungrateful stepsons in the home of her sister Gertrudis, who is Felícito's wife. Felícito and Ismael, each a "discreet hero," defend prudently if not stubbornly their sense of morality. Several characters (Sergeant Lituma, Don Rigoberto and his family) reappear from earlier novels, as does the effective narrative device of immersing flashbacks into the current conversation. Readers can follow each thread separately or embrace the entire novel sequentially, resulting in a different reading experience.