Peruvian Nobel winner Mario Vargas Llosa joins French Academy

Peruvian writer and Nobel literature prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa poses for a photograph during his induction into the Academie Francaise in Paris, on 9 February 2023. © AFP - EMMANUEL DUNAND

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa has been chosen to join the French national linguistic watchdog, the Académie Française, becoming the first member of the élite institution never to have written a book in French.

The 86-year-old novelist, who also has Spanish citizenship, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, and is the first holder of the award at the Académie Française since Francois Mauriac, who won the Nobel in 1952.