So those pesky Swedes confounded those of us who'd spent the morning preparing stories on Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Cormac McCarthy and Tomas Tranströmer, and up and gave the Nobel prize for literature to the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. Maya Jaggi, who's profiled him for the Guardian in the past, will be along later to offer a considered take on his work; meanwhile, what do you think? My key experience of him was reading his 1986 novel, Who Killed Palermino Molero? when I was stranded on my own for a day in Santiago de Compostela airport (long story; all my fault).
It was about five years ago, but the book really stuck in my mind: the brutal murder of a young soldier; the sparseness of the prose; the violent, vivid heat. My second key experience was at one remove: Stuart Jeffries' take on the now-infamous punch up between Vargas Llosa and Gabriel García Márquez is, I think, one of the Guardian books blog's finest moments.
What about you – any special Llosa stories? What do you think of the Nobel committee's choice? And which of his books would you recommend for the uninitiated?
