Mario Vargas Llosa was born on March 28, 1936, in Arequipa, Peru. His family was well to do, and when his parents separated shortly after his birth, Vargas Llosa accompanied his mother to live with her parents. Her father was a diplomat, so many of Vargas Llosa's formative years were spent moving from place to place in Latin America. In 1950, his parents reconciled, and he and his mother went back to live with his father. The father-son relationship was strained, because Vargas Llosa's father believed the boy had been spoiled by his years with his grandparents, and he saw the boy's interest in writing as too feminine. To offset these "inadequacies," he sent his fourteen-year-old son to Leoncia Prado Military Academy. Vargas Llosa considers these years to be among the worst of his life.

Vargas Llosa's years at the academy did not squelch his interest in writing, and...