Culture

Farewell to Mario Vargas Llosa, the Nobel laureate in literature who marked the history of Latin American literature

The celebrated Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa has passed away at the age of 89, leaving behind a literary legacy of great value

14 April 2025

1' min read

Key points

French novelist Gustave Flauber

1' min read

Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa passed away this Sunday in Lima.

This was announced a short while ago by his son Álvaro on his official X account. "With deep sorrow, we make public that our father, Mario Vargas Llosa, died today in Lima, surrounded by his family and in peace," he wrote.

Born in Arequipa on 28 March 1936,the 2010 Nobel laureate in literature had just turned 89. At the wishes of his family, the funeral will be held privately and, in accordance with his wishes, his remains will be cremated.

His novels include 'The City and the Dogs' and 'The Green House'.

In love with French novelist Gustave Flauber

He was the first Peruvian-born writer to be awarded the world's most coveted literary prize; an accolade that sealed a rich, articulate and varied artistic, but also political life.

Vargas Llosa was one of those writers who believe that the novel is an important genre, the only one capable of expressing 'in a vast, ambitious and complex way' the totality of the narrative world. "

Only the novel can benefit from the entire human experience. As a subjective witness, it expresses at the same time what the men of an epoch and a society have been, but also all the ghosts that have created it from an objective reality,' argued the Nobel Prize winner, who was in love with the French novelist Gustave Flaubert and his masterpiece 'Madame Bovary'.