domingo, 10 de octubre de 2010

Frankfurt Book Fair congratulates Mario Vargas Llosa for the Nobel prize for literature


The 2010 winner of the Nobel prize for literature is fêted at the Fair by his publishers from all over the world
Mario Vargas Llosa
Only a few isolated voices had guessed that the Nobel prize for literature would go to a Latin American author. “I heartily congratulate Mario Vargas Llosa and am delighted for him about this award”, says Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair.

There were big celebrations on the stand of Spanish publishing company Santillana (Hall 5.1, Stand D 975) - where Llosa’s work is published under the “Alfaguara” imprint. “The decision was a complete surprise for us. I am happy about it - a happiness multiplied by the ten years I've spent waiting for this decision”, says Juan Gonzalez Alvaro, Director Global Content at Santillana. Vargas Llosa's agent, Agencia Literaria Carman Balcells, is also at the Frankfurt Book Fair and joining in the celebrations.

The champagne corks were popping on the stands of Llosa's international publisehrs at the Book Fair too - such as French publishers Editions Gallimard (Hall 6.1 B 916), the USA publishing company Farrar, Straus & Giroux, or UK publishers Faber (Hall 8.0 H 933).

In 1976, when Latin America was the national guest at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Vargas Llosa opened the Book Fair. In 1980, literary agent Michi Strausfeld brought the Peruvian author to Suhrkamp Verlag (Hall 4.1 F 102); his title “Krieg am Ende der Welt” was published here in 1982. In the eighties, his work became known to a wider public. “Vargas Llosa is one of the greatest Latin American narrative writers who has brought his country Peru to life for us in all its many different facets. You can read your way into his novels and never want to find your way out again. Heartiest congratulations - a well-earned Nobel prize. Vargas Llosa was on the list for many years - and as always happens, in a year when there's less betting on Vargas Llosa, he gets the prize”, says Strausfeld.

Suhrkamp publisher Ulla Unseld-Berkewicz said: “I think it was time - and it is the right time, for Mario Vargas Llosa to win the Nobel prize. You can speak of a body of work in Llosa's case, although we still expect many more books from him. This work is the great, highly imaginative Latin American narrative. He writes exactly as he proclaims: literatura es fuego -

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