The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa is 'a work of undeniable power and skill' (Sunday Telegraph) set in a military academy in Lima, focusing on a group of cadets whose pranks set of a cycle of betrayal, murder and revenge which jeopardizes the entire military hierarchy.
In the author's native Peru, this powerful social satire so outraged the authorities that a thousand copies were publicly burned. The novel is set in Leoncio Prado Military Academy in Lima, where a group of cadets attempt to break out of the vicious round of sadistic ragging, military discipline, confinement and boredom.