When Primitivo Dátalo replies to an advertisement in which the writer Mauro Ledesma Peris seeks a secretary, he is unaware that he is entering a labyrinth of horror. After suffering in the service of the author, Primitivo sets out to gather together the testimonies of other victims in the form of an anthology. This is the basis of La vida puerca, an approximation of the life and personality of Ledesma Peris through the stories of the survivors of his atrocities. In this novel, Héctor Sánchez Minguillán has drawn a masterly portrait of a perverted narcissist, and written a study of the most devious and disturbing forms of seduction. With a gallery of both moving and grotesque characters, the narrative displays a brilliant, heterodox reflection on the romantic identification between life and work.