Peru laments Vargas Llosa, a Nobel winner writer

Peruvians lamented the passing of celebrated author Mario Vargas Llosa, a former presidential contender and Nobel Prize winner for literature, on Monday.

Citing Vargas Llosa as a “figure of national acclaim,” the Peruvian government proclaimed Monday a national day of mourning, and supporters placed flowers outside his residence in the Barranco residential sector of Lima.

Surrounded by his family, the novelist passed away in Lima on Sunday at the age of 89. According to his desires, his family stated that there would be no public ceremony and that he would be cremated.

According to a government order signed by President Dina Boluarte, Vargas Llosa “is a universally recognized figure whose work has contributed to the worldwide recognition of Peruvian literature and culture.”

The president visited the writer’s residence on Monday afternoon to express her sympathies to the family of Vargas Llosa.

The writer’s son, Alvaro Vargas Llosa, a prominent political pundit, told reporters outside the Barranco residence that the family wanted to thank everyone who had expressed condolences from all around the world.

Mario Vargas Llosa, whose extensive body of work describes and analyzes the social and political realities of the region, is regarded as one of the most significant contributors to the Latin American literary boom of the 20th century.

His writings, including “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter,” “Death in the Andes,” and “The War of the End of the World,” earned him the Nobel Prize in 2010.

After being soundly defeated by agronomist Alberto Fujimori in his 1990 presidential campaign, he fled to Spain.

President Pedro Sanchez of Spain bemoaned the author’s passing and conveyed his “gratitude as a reader for an immense work, for so many key books to understand our time.”