Two sorely mistreated octogenarians come up with some dramatic solutions to their problems, which get all tangled up with each other in The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa, the 2010 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Insignificant-looking Felícito Yanaqué, the frugal and hardworking head of a trucking business in the Peruvian town of Piura, has received an extortion note signed only with a drawing of a spider. Crime is on the rise in thriving, rapidly growing Piura, so it's no surprise that someone is hitting up successful Felícito for protection money, but he becomes the town hero by publicly defying the extortionists in the local newspaper.
At the same time, Ismael Carrera, prosperous insurance salesman in Lima, has overheard his treacherous twin sons discussing his eventual death with eager anticipation. In defiance, he has decided to marry his devoted servant, Armida, and cut his sons out of the inheritance before they find out about it.
What neither of these two octogenarians realize is that Felícito's wife and Ismael's mistress are sisters. As those two plots begin to entangle, an old favorite from previous Vargas Llosa novels, 62-year-old Don Rigoberto, is retiring from Carrera's insurance company. Don Rigoberto has a handsome teenage son, Fonchito, who is apparently being stalked by a sad, clever, seductive man who may very well be the devil.
Though the identity of the anonymous extortionist is discovered halfway through, with Vargas Llosa in control, it's all a pleasure--and he doesn't reveal the solution to one final mystery until the last delicious page. --Nick DiMartino, Nick's Picks, University Book Store, Seattle, Wash.