Nobel Literature Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa dies in Peru
LIMA
Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa died on April 13 at the age of 89 in the Peruvian capital.
Vargas Llosa's passing marks the close of the era of Latin America's literary golden generation, of which he was the last living member.
"It is with deep sorrow that we announce that our father, Mario Vargas Llosa, passed away peacefully in Lima today, surrounded by his family," wrote his eldest son Alvaro in a message also signed by his siblings Gonzalo and Morgana Vargas Llosa.
Rumors of the writer's deteriorating health had spread in recent months, during which he had been living out of the public eye.
In October, his son Alvaro said he was "on the verge of turning 90, an age when you have to reduce the intensity of your activities a little."
Born into a middle-class Peruvian family, Vargas Llosa was one of the greats of the Latin American literary "boom" of the 1960s and 1970s, along with Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Argentina's Julio Cortazar.
The writer's "passing will sadden his relatives, his friends and his readers around the world," the family statement read.
"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."
The family said that "no public ceremony will take place," in accordance with instructions left by Vargas Llosa himself.
The writer's "intellectual genius and enormous body of work will remain an enduring legacy for future generations," Peru's President Dina Boluarte posted on X.
"We express our sincerest condolences to the family, to his friends and to the whole world. Rest in peace, illustrious Peruvian for the ages."
Vargas Llosa's works were translated into around 30 languages.
A Francophile, he lived in Paris for several years, becoming in 2016 the first foreign author added to the prestigious Pleiade literary collection during his lifetime.
He was named to France's Academy of prominent intellectuals in 2021.
