biography
| name: |
Llosa, (Jorge) Mario (Pedro) Vargas
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pronunciation:
[hohsa]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1936– )
|
| biography:
| Novelist, born in Arequipa, S Peru. After studying law and literature at home he became a student in Paris and Madrid, building up a reputation as a writer before returning. The Time of the Hero, his first novel, published in 1962 and depicting the abuse of power, so outraged the Peruvian authorities that a thousand copies were publicly burned. Subsequent novels include his masterpiece Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977), The War at the End of the World (1985), A Fish in the Water (1994), and The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto (1998), and he is heralded as one of the world's greatest novelists, winning many honours. Critics acclaim La fiesta del chivo (2000, trans The Feast of the Goat) as his finest novel. Set in Trujillo's Dominican Republic, it is based on historical as well as fictional figures, through whom he recreates the stifling atmosphere of moral confusion and servility that personal despotism provokes. He is also a football commentator, and in 1990 ran unsuccessfully for the Peruvian presidency, having declined an offer of the premiership in 1984. |
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