Edilberto torres mario vargas llosa biography

Imagine La Rosa Nautica, an upscale restaurant in Lima, Peru. Tourists sit around seaside tables, looking out at gulls and surfers. Two wealthy old men, Don Ismael Carrera and his friend, Don Rigoberto, sit and order a luxurious meal.

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Ismael describes the scandal his upcoming marriage will cause in Lima and the annoyance it will occasion for his sons, then abruptly adds that his sons will likely have him “killed by a hired assassin, if they can.” Across Peru, in the provincial city of Piura, small business owner Felícito Yanaqué begins another ordinary day in his sleepy hometown, only to find a letter on his door notifying him that he is going to be extorted very soon.

The extortion letter is signed, whimsically, with “a rough drawing of what seemed to be a spider.”

Mario Vargas Llosa’s “The Discreet Hero” (translated by Edith Grossman) depicts a pleasant, prosperous Peru; no violence to speak of actually takes place in this new novel.

Yet t