Mario Vargas Llosa: El héroe discreto [The Discreet Hero]

The latest addition to my website is Mario Vargas Llosa‘s El héroe discreto [The Discreet Hero]. This is his latest novel, which has yet to be translated into English, though will undoubtedly appear in English before long. Amazingly, it is already out in German. It is not one of his great works but one of his more light-hearted ones, and most enjoyable to read. It tells two stories. One is about the owner of a transport company, in a not very happy marriage, who stands up to pressure to pay protection money and the consequences of his action. The other is about an insurance executive, Rigoberto, whose boss and owner of the company, a widower, suddenly decides to marry his housekeeper, who is forty years younger than him, with the main aim of disinheriting his reprobate twin sons and the consequences of this decision for Rigoberto and his wife and others. Of course, the two stories coincide and, of course, Vargas Llosa leaves us guessing to the end.