The Discreet Hero

It's always a pleasure reading fiction by Mario Vargas Llosa, and few authors capture the sense of a place better than this one. Having spent time in Peru, it is very easy to feel the atmosphere Vargas Llosa evokes, the contrast between wealth and poverty, city and country, religion and scepticism, etc. As the title of this work suggests, much of the novel is about courage, conviction, principles. The Discreet Hero, however, is far from a dull read, and the novel often feels like a thriller, taking in blackmail, kidnappings, incest and more. All the characters are broadly plausible, and Vargas Llosa does a great job in reconciling the two separate story strands, bringing them to a just fitting and moral conclusion. 9/10.

By Mario Vargas Llosa