Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian-Spanish author who illuminated the perils of authoritarianism through his novels and once campaigned for Peru’s presidency, has died at the age of 89, his family confirmed.
“It is with deep sorrow that we announce that our father, Mario Vargas Llosa, passed away peacefully in Lima today, surrounded by his family,” read a statement posted by his son, Álvaro Vargas Llosa, on X (formerly Twitter).
Vargas Llosa’s literary legacy includes acclaimed works such as Conversation in the Cathedral (1969), The War of the End of the World (1981), and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977), the latter adapted into the 1990 film Tune in Tomorrow, starring Keanu Reeves and Barbara Hershey.
In 2010, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy praised him for “his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.”
His children reflected on his passing with a message of gratitude: “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.”
A private ceremony will be held to honor his life, attended by close friends and family.
Peruvian President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra paid tribute, calling him “an illustrious Peruvian of all time.” A statement from her office echoed the sentiment: “His intellectual genius and vast body of work will remain an everlasting legacy for future generations.”
Born in Arequipa, in southern Peru, Vargas Llosa spent part of his childhood in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where his grandfather served as the Peruvian consul. He later studied at a military academy and at the National University of San Marcos in Lima. By 1952, he had debuted as a writer with the play La Huida del Inca and soon became a fixture in Peru’s literary circles.
Vargas Llosa also worked as a journalist and broadcaster, pursued graduate studies at the University of Madrid, and later moved to Paris. His breakthrough came in 1963 with the novel La ciudad y los perros (The Time of the Hero), which earned international acclaim and was translated into more than a dozen languages. Notable works that followed include The Green House (1966) and Captain Pantoja and the Special Service (1973).
His academic and literary career took him across the globe—teaching in London, spending time in the U.S. at Washington State University, and living in Barcelona—before returning to Lima in 1974. A collection of his essays was published in English in 1978.
In 1990, Vargas Llosa entered the political arena, running for president of Peru on a classical liberal platform advocating for personal freedom and limited government. After narrowly losing a runoff to Alberto Fujimori, he moved to Spain and became a Spanish citizen in 1993. The following year, he was awarded the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious honor in Spanish-language literature.
In his later years, he continued to write influential novels such as The Feast of the Goat (2000) and The Bad Girl (2006).
Upon receiving the Nobel Prize, Vargas Llosa credited French novelist Gustave Flaubert as a major influence, admiring his discipline and devotion to the craft. He also underscored literature’s power as a political and moral force: “Literature awakens society to suffering, injustice, and inequality,” he said. “I think literature is pleasure, but it’s also a very important instrument to move forward in life.”