Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel literature laureate and a giant of Latin American letters for many decades, has died, his son said Sunday. He was 89.

Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, whose novels explored the military dictatorships and political corruption of Latin America, has died. He was 89.

Mario Vargas Llosa, who has died at the age of 89 in his native Peru, was a towering figure in Latin American literature and culture who rarely shied away from controversy. With more than 50 works to his name,