 Vargas Llosa <unk> fictional elements and historical events : the book is not a documentary , and the Cabral family , for instance , is completely fictional . On the other hand , the characters of Trujillo and Trujillo 's assassins are drawn from the historical record ; Vargas Llosa <unk> real historical incidents of brutality and oppression into these people 's stories , to further illuminate the nature of the regime and the responses it provoked . In Vargas Llosa 's words , " It 's a novel , not a history book , so I took many , many liberties . [ . . . ] I have respected the basic facts , but I have changed and deformed many things in order to make the story more persuasive — and I have not exaggerated . " 
