Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa dies at 89

Mario Vargas Llosa has died at the age of 89 in Lima. The Peruvian novelist, essayist, and journalist was a Nobel Prize winner "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat."

The demise announcement was made by his children on X (formerly Twitter) on April 13. The joint statement signed by his three children, Álvaro, Morgana, and Gonzalo, says,

"It is with deep sorrow that we announce that our father, Mario Vargas Llosa, passed away peacefully in Lima today, surrounded by his family. His departure will sadden his relatives, his friends and his readers around the world, but we hope that they will find comfort, as we do, in the fact that he enjoyed a long, adventurous and fruitful life, and leaves behind him a body of work that will outlive him."

Works by Mario Vargas Llosa

Vargas Llosa was influenced by both Peruvian and international writers. The Nobel Prize winner admired Gustave Flaubert and Jean-Paul Sartre for their artistic freedom and style of writing. William Faulkner also greatly shaped his writings.

His book The Green House (1966) tells a powerful story about how a brothel affects the lives of the people and characters living in a small town. It was loved by many and won the Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize. In The Time of the Hero (1962), he used his own experience at a military school to write a story that caused debate but also won the Premio de la Crítica Española.

Conversation in The Cathedral (1969) is known for its deep emotions, which he published when he was 33 years of age. His other work, The Feast of the Goat (2000), explored the rule of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, mixing personal stories with political history.

Along with the Nobel Prize, Mario Vargas Llosa also won the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the Irving Kristol Award, and the PEN/Nabokov Award.

He published Le dedico mi silencio in 2023. Mario Vargas Llosa also contested the 1990 presidential election in Peru with a center-right party. However, he lost the election to Alberto Fujimori. Llosa has often discussed politics in his writing. Although he never held any official political position, he was a part of the Information and Democracy Commission started by Reporters Without Borders.

As per Álvaro's statement, there will be no public ceremony for his father. The family has decided to hold a quiet ceremony, with only close family members present.

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