The Time of the Hero

In Vargas Llosa's first novel, the action takes place at the Leoncio Prado Military Academy in Lima, Peru. Four angry cadets, who have formed an inner circle in an attempt to ward off the boredom and stifling confinement of the military academy, set off a chain of events that starts with a theft and leads to murder and suicide. The Time of the Hero presents, with great accuracy and power, the cadets' nightmare life: brutal initiation rites, poker in the latrines, drinking contests; and, above all, the strange military code which, whether broken or followed, can only destroy. 409 pages.