Mario Vargas Llosa

Spanish online reading and listening practice - level A2

Mario Vargas Llosa was a Peruvian writer who sadly passed away on April 13, 2025. He rose to fame in the 1960s, becoming a leading member of the Latin American Boom. Notably, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010 and one of his books, the partly-autobiographical Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, was the basis for the film Tune in Tomorrow starring Keanu Reeves. Discover more about Vargas Llosa's literary life in our bilingual reader below.

This reading and listening exercise can help you practise El Pretérito Indefinido, El Pretérito Imperfecto and gender of nouns ending in -umbre, -ión, -dad, -tad, -itis and -sis.

Text and audio by Silvia Píriz.

Exercise: Mario Vargas Llosa

Listen to the audio, then read the transcript. Click any phrase for the translation and links to related grammar lessons which you can add to your KwizIQ notebook to practise later.

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Answer in English: we're testing your understanding of the text, not your grammar or expression, so nothing you write here will be marked for accuracy. To get feedback on how you write, try one of our writing exercises.

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