Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Prize

That's for literature, sadly he never had the chance to win a prize for economics, as his political career as a Peruvian classical liberal was cut short by electoral defeat.  He has many fine books but I have two particular favorites: The War of the End of the World (serious and epic, concerning a millenarian revolt in Brazil) and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (a fun story and spoof of telenovela culture).  Conversation in the Cathedral is sometimes considered a classic but I find it unreadable.  I suspect his early The Green House will resonate more with Latin Americans.  His last major novel, The Bad Girl, was entertaining but not entirely satisfying and it reminded me a bit too much of an older man writing about sex.  The Feast of the Goat is a very good study of political power.  Here are previous MR mentions of Mario Vargas Llosa.

Here is Wikipedia on Vargas Llosa.  Alex has done a good bit of work with Alvaro Vargas Llosa, son of Mario and a prominent writer on classical liberal themes, and perhaps he will relate some of that to us.