He once punched Gabriel García Márquez. I remember learning about this while reading Vargas Llosa as an adolescent, still sounds hard to believe: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/03/06/when-mario-va...

Recent article on him in the London Review of Books, exploring his rightward turn as he grew older:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n05/tony-wood/why-did-he...

Probably my favorite author of fiction. The feast of the goat (la fiesta del chivo) is at the top of my list if you have not read him.

Conversation in the Cathedral absolutely blew my mind when I first read it. Honestly, just the first section would have made a great book all on its own.