« I can exercise a greater contribution as a writer and intellectual than as a political activist » – Liberation

Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa died on Sunday April 13, 2025 in Lima. We republled the interview published in 1995 on the occasion of the release of a new book.

As often at Vargas Llosa, Fish in water is a book with two voices: two parallel stories which take place on different dates and places, and which sometimes but not always end up crossing. It was already the case in Aunt Julia and the Scribbard, His most autobiographical novel, where the character of Varguitas looked like a drop of water to his inventor. This time, these are « memories » that Vargas Llosa claims to deliver to his readers, moving away as little as possible on his own truth. The objective is not achieved, and so much the better. Because, at least in the part which concerns childhood and adolescence, it is a real novel. His central core, it is relations with his father, whom he had believed dead and who reappears only when he is 10 years old, to put an end to a semblance of family harmony. The confrontation with this authoritarian and limited sirer has Kafkai hints: it is a real « letter to the father » where Vargas Llosa however softens his words by affirming that it is this same father who, by his opposition, would be responsible for his entry into literature. Less exciting, on the other hand, is the account of the electoral campaign led in Peru between 1987 and 1990, which did not leave excellent memories to the unlucky candidate