Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the most acclaimed writers in the Spanish-speaking world, has been awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in literature.
The Swedish Academy hailed “his cartography of structures of power” and “trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.”
The 74-year-old has written more than 30 novels, plays and essays.
He is the first South American winner of the prize since 1982 when it went to Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
His international breakthrough came with the 1960s novel The Time of The Hero.
Born in the town of Arequipa, the writer took Spanish nationality in 1993 – three years after an unsuccessful bid for the Peruvian presidency.
In 1995, he was awarded the Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world’s most distinguished literary honour.
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