Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa has won the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat."
The Swedish Academy, which is responsible for choosing the Nobel Laureates in Literature, made the announcement in Stockholm on Thursday. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation.
Vargas Llosa, who unsuccessfully ran for the Presidency representing the Frente Democrático (FREDEMO) alliance, was born on March 28, 1936 in Arequipa, Peru to Ernesto Vargas Maldonado and Dora Llosa Ureta. He studied law and literature in Lima and Madrid. In 1959, he moved to Paris where he worked as a language teacher and as a journalist for French news agency Agence-France-Presse (AFP).
As an author, Vargas Llosa made his international breakthrough with the novel La ciudad y los perros (1963; The Time of the Hero, 1966). The novel, based on his experiences during his stay at the military school in Leoncio Prado, evoked controversies in his homeland. A thousand copies were burnt publicly by officers of Leoncio Prado.
His best known works include Conversación en la catedral (1969; Conversation in the Cathedral, 1975), La guerra del fin del mundo (1981; The War of the End of the World, 1984) and La fiesta del chivo (2000; The Feast of the Goat, 2001).
He is also an acclaimed journalist and essayist.
