Mario Vargas Llosa passes away at 89

Mario Vargas Llosa has died in Lima (Peru) at the age of 89, his son announced in a post on X. With him goes one of the last giants of Latin America's literary boom, a writer who made the world listen not just to Peru, but to the soul of a continent in conflict.

From the dusty barracks of The Time of the Hero to his other works, Vargas Llosa wrote with the kind of elegance and depth that only comes from living through both the beauty and the chaos. He ran for president, yes, but his true power was always on the page.

To some, he was a controversial figure. He stood apart from the political currents that once united his generation of writers, choosing a path that often put him at odds. But he never stopped believing in the responsibility of the artist to provoke, to question, to create.

For readers like me, who found him young and stayed with him through decades of novels, debates, and reinventions, his passing feels deeply personal. He made us reflect. He made us argue. He made us feel smarter for having read him. Rest in peace, Maestro.