Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian writer and Nobel literature laureate, died on Sunday at the age of 89, his family reported, marking the end of Latin America’s literary golden generation.
“It is with deep sorrow that we announce that our father, Mario Vargas Llosa, passed away peacefully in Lima today, surrounded by his family,” his eldest son Alvaro wrote in a letter on X, which was also signed by his siblings Gonzalo and Morgana Vargas Llosa.
Vargas Llosa, who was born into a middle-class Peruvian family, was one of the greats of the Latin American literary “boom” of the 1960s and 1970s, alongside Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Colombia and Julio Cortázar from Argentina.
Rumours of the writer’s worsening health had circulated in previous months, during which he had been living away from the public eye.
In October, his son Alvaro stated that he was “on the verge of turning 90, an age when you have to reduce the intensity of your activities a little.”
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 announced that “no public ceremony will take place”, by instructions left by Vargas Llosa himself.
“Our mother, our children, and ourselves trust that we will have the space and privacy to bid him farewell in the company of family members and close friends,” the siblings added.
They stated that Vargas Llosa’s body will be cremated per his desires.
A small number of young people came around Vargas Llosa’s home to pay tribute, including Gustavo Ruiz, a reader of his books.
“I didn’t believe it, and I wanted to come close to his house since they are not going to give him a wake,” Ruiz told national radio station RPP.
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 the whole world. Rest in peace, illustrious Peruvian for the ages.”
Speaking on his demise, former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Vargas Llosa was a “master of masters”.
“He leaves us a path for the future,” Uribe said on X.
Fellow Peruvian writer Alfredo Bryce Echenique praised Vargas Llosa’s “enormity” and told RPP that his friend’s death was “a sorrow for Peru”.
US Deputy State Secretary Christopher Landau expressed sadness at Vargas Llosa’s death.
“To label him as just Peruvian would be a disservice because his themes and interests were timeless and universal,” Landau wrote on X. “He will live on in my bookshelves and many others in Latin America and around the world.”
