56 h. ago Mario Vargas Llosa death: Peruvian Nobel literature laureate dies aged 89

Nobel literature laureate and giant of Latin American letters for many decades

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59 h. ago Mario Vargas Llosa, giant of Latin American literature, dies aged 89

Nobel laureate, a star of the international boom in Latin American literature, also once ran for president in PeruInterview: ‘The Nobel prize is a fairytale for a week and a nightmare for a year’Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the pivotal figures who ignited a global boom in Latin American literature, has died aged 89.His death on Sunday was announced in a statement from his children, Álvaro, Gonzalo and Morgana Vargas Llosa. Continue reading...

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60 h. ago Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel literature laureate, dies at 89

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel literature laureate and a giant of Latin American letters for many decades, has died, his son said Sunday

Events

2 w. ago What links Hound Tor, Wharram Percy and Gainsthorpe? The Saturday quiz

From Brazilian wandering and giant huntsman to Margaret, Maid of Norway and Richard II, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz1 Which continent has the highest ratio of coastline to total area?2 Han Kang is the first Nobel literature laureate to write in what language?3 Which marine mammals hold hands while sleeping?4 Who would receive a visit from Agent Million?5 “And Robin shall restore amends” is the last line of which play?6 What is the world’s bestselling cognac brand?7 Which art critic was the son of occultist composer Peter Warlock?8 The second largest example of what was found in Botswana in 2024?What links: 9 100s (colourings); 200s (preservatives); 300s (antioxidants); 400s (emulsifiers)?10 Margaret, Maid of Norway; Joanna I; Richard II; George III; Louis XVI?11 Brazilian wandering; giant huntsman; Goliath birdeater; Hercules baboon?12 20 March; 21 June; 22 September; 21 December?13 Lope de Aguirre; Dieter Dengler; Katia and Maurice Krafft; Fini Straubinger; Timothy Tr...

Politics

4 w. ago Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah review – love and betrayal from the Nobel laureate

This is a powerful story of debt and obligation set against the tourism boom in post-colonial TanzaniaA storyteller of understated brilliance, Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the 2021 Nobel prize in literature for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”. Born in Zanzibar, Gurnah, now 76, moved to Britain in 1968 as a refugee of the Zanzibar revolution. His books often feature people who leave what they know and arrive “in strange places, carrying little bits of jumbled luggage and suppressing secret and garbled ambitions”, to use the words of a character from his 2001 novel By the Sea. Theft, Gurnah’s first book since his Nobel win, is in part a continued inquiry into familiar themes of exile and memory, home, longing and loneliness. It is also a poignant portrait of love, friendship and betrayal, set against Tanzania’s tourism boom during the 1990s.The novel follows Karim,...

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4 w. ago Duterte’s arrest gives ‘a sense impunity ends’, says Nobel peace prize winner

Maria Ressa said rules-based order ‘can perhaps still exist’ but social media is being used to undermine democracy around the worldThe arrest of Rodrigo Duterte is a welcome sign that the rules-based order continues to hold, the Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has said, even as the global order has been marred by the US “descending into hell” at the hands of the same forces that consumed the Philippines.Ressa’s remarks came after Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, made his first appearance before the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague, accused of committing crimes against humanity during his brutal “war on drugs”. Continue reading...

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4 w. ago Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah review – a masterclass in quicksilver storytelling

The Nobel laureate’s wonderful new novel connects a trio of east African teens as they come of age, moving from small-scale dramas to wide-ranging social panoramasThe receipt of a big award inevitably ramps up the pressure on whatever the winner publishes next, but there can be no such fears over Abdulrazak Gurnah’s new novel, Theft, his first since becoming a Nobel laureate in 2021. Set between his birthplace, Zanzibar, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, it’s a quietly powerful demonstration of storytelling mastery, at once coming-of-age chamber piece and wide-angled postcolonial panorama, pegged to the inner lives of its central trio – all teenagers followed into adulthood. Meanwhile, sketched between the lines, is family heartache spread over several generations, all narrated in a quicksilver style that gives you the pleasurable sense that you’re putty in the hands of a warm yet clear-eyed authorial intelligence.It begins by tracing the marital misery that led to one of its characters,...

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