Mario Vargas Llosa

Peruvian, Spanish and Dominican novelist and writer (1936-2025) · Spain · Writers · Died at 89

Mario Vargas Llosa is read about 2,076 times a day, in 105 languages.

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A Peruvian novelist who spent six decades mapping how power crushes individuals, then tried to seize it himself - and lost spectacularly. The 2010 Nobel laureate began as a champion of revolution and ended as its fiercest critic, writing monumental fictions while stumping for the right across two continents.

Writers Writer / Author Fiction Politics Journalism Screenwriting Theatre Philosophy

A life in dates

2025Died13 April 20252021Member of the Académie françaiseOffice2021-20252019Grand Cross of the Order of BoyacáAward2018“Political correctness is the enemy of freedom because it rejects honesty and authenticity. We have to tackle it as the distortion of the truth.”In their wordsInterview, El País, 27/02/2018Read the whole statement

2016Library of Congress Living LegendAward2015Gold Medal of the Community of MadridAward2012Carlos Fuentes International Prize for Literary Creation in the Spanish LanguageAwardMore about this2010Viareggio-Versilia International PrizeAward2009Premio Ceppo PistoiaAward2008Prix mondial Cino Del DucaAward2007Honorary Doctorate of the University of ReimsAward2005Irving Kristol AwardAward2002Caonabo de Oro AwardAward2001Honorary Doctor of the University of PauAward1999Menéndez Pelayo International PrizeAward1996Peace Prize of the German Publishers' and Booksellers' AssociationAwardMember of the Royal Spanish AcademyOffice1996-20251995Honorary Doctorate of the University of MurciaAward1977Chairman of PEN InternationalOffice1977-19791963“It is easy to know what you want to say, but not to say it.”In their wordsThe Time of the Hero (1963)Read the whole statement

“He is always furious, on account of what he finds out or what he doesn't find out.”In their wordsThe Time of the Hero (1963)Read the whole statement

“When you start having bad luck, there isn't an end to it.”In their wordsThe Time of the Hero (1963)Read the whole statement

“We all believe in the regulations, but you have to know how to interpret them.”In their wordsThe Time of the Hero (1963)Read the whole statement

“A clean conscience might help you to get into heaven. but it won't help your career.”In their wordsThe Time of the Hero (1963)Read the whole statement

1936Born28 March 1936

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Mario Vargas Llosa LCCN2020733847 (cropped)

Sabatovargasllosa (cropped)

Sabatovargasllosa

Acto fundacional UPD3

Acto fundacional UPD6

AGUIRRE VII FORO ATLÁNTICO (CASA AMÉRICA) CON VARGAS LLOSA

Alfonsín con Vargas Llosa

Aécio Neves - Seminário Internacional sobre a América Latina, no Peru - 26 03 2015 (16757549300)

In their own words 10

Mario Vargas Llosa

10 statements, newest first

Political correctness is the enemy of freedom because it rejects honesty and authenticity. We have to tackle it as the distortion of the truth.
2018, Interview, El País, 27/02/2018, Own words
Reading changed dreams into life and life into dreams.
2010, Nobel Lecture (2010), Own words
It is easy to know what you want to say, but not to say it.
1963, The Time of the Hero (1963), Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Grand Cross of the Order of Boyacá2019

Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit2018

Honorary Doctor of the University of Miami2018

Library of Congress Living Legend2016

Honorary Doctorate of the University of Burgos2016

Hayek Medal2016

Gold Medal of the Community of Madrid2015

Don Quijote Journalism Prize2015

Carlos Fuentes International Prize for Literary Creation in the Spanish Language2012

Honorary Doctorate of the University of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria2012

Commander of the Order of the Aztec Eagle2011

St. Louis Literary Award2011

Nobel Prize in Literature2010

Viareggio-Versilia International Prize2010

Alfonso Reyes International Prize2010

Honorary Doctorate of the Bordeaux Montaigne University2009

Honorary Doctorate of the University of Granada2009

Premio Ceppo Pistoia2009

Honorary Doctor of the University of Alicante2008

Prix mondial Cino Del Duca2008

Freedom Prize2008

Honorary Doctorate of the University of Reims2007

Maria Moors Cabot Prizes2006

Orden de la Independencia Cultural Rubén Darío2006

Irving Kristol Award2005

Honorary doctor of the Humboldt University of Berlin2005

Honorary Doctor of the Sorbonne Nouvelle University2005

Caonabo de Oro Award2002

Grand Cross, Special Class of the Order of the Sun of Peru2001

Honorary Doctorate of the National University of San Marcos2001

Honorary Doctor of the University of Pau2001

Honorary Doctorate from University of French Polynesia2001

Menéndez Pelayo International Prize1999

Ortega y Gasset Awards1999

Mariano de Cavia' Price1997

National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism1997

Peace Prize of the German Publishers' and Booksellers' Association1996

Jerusalem Prize1995

Honorary Doctorate of the University of Valladolid1995

Honorary Doctorate of the University of Murcia1995

Family

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About this person

Vargas Llosa broke into international view in the 1960s with The Time of the Hero, The Green House, and the sprawling Conversation in The Cathedral, novels drawn from his Peruvian life and its suffocating hierarchies. The Nobel committee would later cite his "cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat." He supported Castro's Cuba early on, then turned hard against it after poet Heberto Padilla's imprisonment in 1971, drifting toward classical liberalism. In 1990 he ran for Peru's presidency on a platform of free-market reforms and lost in a landslide to Alberto Fujimori. He kept writing - comedies, thrillers, historical novels - and kept winning: the Cervantes in 1994, the Nobel in 2010, a Spanish marquessate in 2011, a seat in the Académie Française in 2021. He died in April 2025, having outlived the Boom and most of its debates.

Country

Spain

In common with Mario

Elizabeth McGovernAlso in Tune in Tomorrow... (1990)

Rosa MonteroAlso in La última lidia (2023)

Pilar BardemAlso in Captain Pantoja and the Special Services (1999)

Helena RojoAlso in The Cubs (1973)

Igor VernikAlso in The Jaguar (1987)

Luis LlosaAlso in Tattoos in Memory (2024)

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