Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, a key figure of the 1960s Latin American literary boom and winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, died on Sunday, April 13, at the age of 89. 

The author of seminal books like The City and the Dogs, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, and The Feast of the Goat died in Lima surrounded by his loved ones, his family confirmed in a statement.

“His passing will sadden his relatives, his friends, and his readers around the world, but we hope they will find solace, as we do, in the fact that he enjoyed a long, varied, and fruitful life, and leaves behind a body of work that will outlive him,” they wrote.

In the statement, signed by his three children (Álvaro, Gonzalo, and Morgana Vargas Llosa), they also announced that there will be no public ceremony to bid him farewell. They will honor his last wishes by cremating his remains.

In recent months, rumors about his delicate state of health had circulated on social media, although his son Álvaro denied them with two photos on his X account. One shows the writer and his wife Patricia sitting on a white armchair, holding hands. In the other, he was reading a book.

Vargas Llosa’s Literary Legacy

The veteran writer published his last novel, I Dedicate My Silence to Him, in 2023, announcing that it would be his farewell to fiction.

His final publication came two months later, with his last column for Spanish newspaper El País, which had been published since 1990. In these articles, he not only discussed culture but also delved into politics and society.

At 74 years old, the writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his cartography of power structures and his sharp images of resistance, rebellion, and the defeat of the individual,” the Swedish Academy stated in 2010.

His narrative work was characterized by the importance of technical experimentation. For this reason, he is considered a benchmark of novel composition and a leading innovator of narrative and stylistic possibilities.

The novel was his most frequent genre, although he was also a renowned political and social essayist.

His work has been translated into more than 30 languages ​​and adapted for film and theater.

With information from Ambito.com