Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Literature Prize

The Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa today won the 2010 Nobel prize for literature. The award is the culmination of a literary life that began in 1963 with the publication of his novel The Time of the Hero, and includes further books such as Conversation in the Cathedral (1969), Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977) and The Feast of the Goat (2000).

"I am very surprised, I did not expect this," Vargas Llosa told Spanish National Radio, saying that he thought it was a joke when he received the call. "It had been years since my name was even mentioned," he added. "It has certainly been a total surprise, a very pleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless."

Born in 1936 in the provincial city of Arequipa, Vargas Llosa began working as a crime reporter for the Lima newspaper La Crónica at the age of 15. He moved to Paris in 1959 and from there to London and Barcelona, working as a Spanish teacher, broadcaster and journalist and as a visiting professor in universities in Europe and America, before returning to Peru in 1975.

Vargas Llosa took Spanish nationality in 1993 - three years after an unsuccessful bid for the Peruvian presidency. He was defeated by Alberto Fujimori, and left the country after a defeat he blamed on a "dirty war". "I didn't lie," he explained. "I said we needed radical reforms and social sacrifices, and in the beginning it worked. But then came the dirty war, presenting my reforms as something that would destroy jobs. It was very effective, especially with the poorest of society. In Latin America we prefer promises to reality."

The writer's international breakthrough came with the 1960s novel The Time of The Hero which built on his experiences at the Peruvian military academy, Leoncio Prado. The book was considered controversial in his homeland and 1,000 copies were burnt publicly by officers from the academy.

Then, a succession of novels, short stories and plays cemented his literary reputation.

The Feast of the Goat (2000), widely viewed as his most recent masterpiece, returns to dictatorship, offering a portrait of Rafael L Trujillo Molina, who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until 1961. He has described it as a "realist treatment of a human being who became a monster".

The author, whose works have been translated into 31 languages, had long been mentioned as a possible Nobel candidate. He has also won some of the Western world's most prestigious literary medals including the Cervantes Prize in 1995 - the Spanish-speaking world's most distinguished literary honour.

vocabulary

1. There are some words in green in the text. Choose 2 of them and write a synonym, an opposite, a definition or a sentence.
2. Match these words from the text to their definition.

expect / nonetheless / bid / blame / masterpiece

• an attempt to attain some goal or purpose
• to place the responsibility for (a fault, error, etc.)
• to look forward to; regard as likely to happen
• a person's greatest piece of work, as in an art
• however; nevertheless

comprehension

1. Say if these sentences about the text are true or false. Don't forget to copy the evidence from the text.

• Everybody in Peru acclaimed his novel The Time of The Hero.
  
• The Nobel prize was a surprise beacuse the author had never been mentioned as a possible candidate.
  

what would you say in these situations?

1. You lose a book that you had borrowed from a friend.
2. Your Spanish Language teacher asks for suggestions to celebrate Vargas Llosa's Nobel prize.
   

listening

Listen to Mario Vargas LLosa, and complete the sentences below.

• "I think that the ambition of all writers is that his works would have in his readers the effect ... (1) had in their lives."

• "To read all these authors has enrichened my life in such a way, ... (2), the world, that if my books do something similar for readers, that ... (3)."

• "I don't think it will affect my writing, but ... (4). It's not usual for me to be surrounded by photographers and journalists. Usually, my life is ... (5)."