Latin America

Mario Vargas Llosa, the immortal

On the back of his induction into L'Académie Française, we look back at the life and career of legendary Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa

Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa. Photo: Petr Bonek/Shutterstock

L’Académie Française, the French literary academy, has elected Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa as one of its 40 members, a select group known as “the immortals.” Not that the Nobel Prize laureate still needs any further validation, after decades of writing critiques, journalism, and plays — as well as fiction — which have produced some of the modern world’s most incredible pieces of literature.

But Mr. Vargas Llosa’s entry into the prestigious French literary academy — without ever publishing work in French — is yet another testament to his grandeur.

I discovered his work in my early 20s, thanks to a former boss who handed me a ragged copy of “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter,” ensuring me that the book would blow my mind. The semi-autobiographical tale revolves around an aspiring journalist and writer named Mario and two extraordinary characters from his coming of age: his alluring aunt Julia, who he decides to pursue, and Pedro Camacho, an...

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