Making Waves - by Mario Vargas Llosa (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

Spanning thirty years of writing, Making Waves traces the development of the Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa's thinking on politics and culture, and shows the breadth of his interests and passions. Featured here are astute meditations on the Cuban Revolution, Latin American independence, and the terrorism of Peru's Shining Path; brilliant engagements with towering figures of literature such as Joyce, Faulkner, and Sartre; and observations about the dog cemetery where Rin Tin Tin is buried, Lorena Bobbitt's knife, and the failures of the English public-school system.

Review Quotes

"Making Waves is fascinating . . . [It] is a diverse and representative volume that allows us, for the first time, to trace this enigmatic, often brilliant writer's . . . intellectual journey." --Jay Parini, The New York Times Book Review

"In the star-studded world of the Latin American novel, Mario Vargas Llosa is a supernova." --Raymond Sokolov, The Wall Street Journal

"Vargas Llosa speaks in his own voice, sees through his own eyes. His vision is unique. His genius is unmistakable." --Eugenia Thornton, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

About the Author

Mario Vargas Llosa was born in Peru in 1936. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat." He also won the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's most distinguished literary honor. His many works of fiction and nonfiction include The Feast of the Goat, In Praise of the Stepmother, and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, all published by FSG. He died in Lima at age 89 in 2025.