Peruvian author wins Nobel Prize for literature
Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa has won this year's Nobel prize for literature.
The 74-year-old has written more than 30 novels, plays and essays.
The prize of $1.5m was the fourth of this year's Nobel prizes.
Awards for medicine, physics and chemistry have already been announced.
he academy's permanent secretary Peter Englund said Vargas Llosa "is a divinely gifted story-teller,'' whose writing touches the reader. "He is one of the big authors in the Spanish-speaking world,'' he said.
In the previous six years, the academy rewarded five Europeans and one Turk, sparking criticism that it was too euro-centric. Last year’s award went to German writer Herta Mueller.
Mr Englund said Vargas Llosa was in New York when was told he had won the prize. He is teaching at Princeton University in New Jersey.
“He was very, very happy” Mr Englund said. “And very moved.”
Born in Arequipa, Peru, Vargas Llosa grew up with his grandparents in Bolivia after his parents divorced. The family moved back to Peru in 1946 and he later went to military school before studying literature and law in Lima and Madrid.
In 1959, he moved to Paris where he worked as a language teacher and as a journalist for Agence France-Presse and the national television service of France.
He has lectured and taught at a number of universities in the US, South America and Europe.
In 1990, he ran for the presidency but lost the election to Alberto Fujimori. In 1994 he was the first Latin American writer to be elected to the Spanish Academy, where he took his seat in 1996.
