Mario Vargas Llosa was born in Arequipa, Peru. He attended the University of San Marcos in Lima, and later obtained his doctorate from the University of Madrid. His novels include Conversation in the Cathedral, The Green House, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, In Praise of the Stepmother, The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto, and more recently, The Feast of the Goat and The Way to Paradise. He lives in London.