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Books

Social comedy Peruvian-style

Two innocent men face kidnapping, death threats and haunting by the devil — and The Discreet Hero is Llosa-lite — a mere jeu d’esprit

25 April 2015

9:00 AM

25 April 2015

9:00 AM

The Discreet Hero Mario Vargas Llosa (translated by Edith Grossman)

Faber, pp.326, £20, ISBN: 9780571310708

Mario Vargas Llosa likes to counterpoint his darker novels with rosier themes: after the savagery of The Green House came the soufflé of Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter with its mischievous nod to TV soaps, followed by The Feast of the Goat, a searing portrait of the Dominican Republic under Trujillo.

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