Mario Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010 'for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat.' He has also won the Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's most distinguished literary honor.

His many works include The Discreet Hero, The Feast of the Goat, The Bad Girl, and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, all published by Faber. Edith Grossman has translated the works of the Nobel laureates Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, among others.

Her version of Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote is considered the finest translation of the Spanish masterpiece in the English language.