''The Discreet Hero'' () is a 2013 novel by the Peruvian-Spanish writer

Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (28 March 1936 – 13 April 2025) was a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and politician. Vargas Llosa was one of the most significant Latin American novelists and essayists a ...

. It follows the interlaced intrigues of three Peruvians: the owner of a trucking business who refuses to pay

protection money A protection racket is a type of racket and a scheme of organized crime perpetrated by a potentially hazardous organized crime group that generally guarantees protection outside the sanction of the law to another entity or individual from viol ...

, the boss of an insurance company who marries and goes away with his housekeeper, and an executive at the insurance company who is unjustly accused of a crime by his employer's sons. The book reuses several characters from previous stories by Vargas Llosa, notably '' In Praise of the Stepmother'' (1988) and ' (1998). The novel was the basis for the Colombian

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar Drama (film and television), drama genres around the w ...

'' Cuando vivas conmigo'' which ran in 2016 and 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Discreet Hero, The 2013 Spanish novels Novels by Mario Vargas Llosa Spanish novels adapted into television shows Alfaguara books Novels set in Peru