The Time of the Hero has been acclaimed by critics around the world as one of the outstanding Spanish novels of recent decades. 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. But their pranks set off a cycle of betrayal, murder and revenge which jeopardizes the entire military hierarchy.