DR SABINE KÖLLMANN
Writer and Independent Scholar
Critical Appraisals
A Companion to Mario Vargas Llosa:
Choice
Köllmann’s unique approach to her topic, enhanced by exhaustive trenchant research, results in an exceptional work offering amazing insight into this singular figure. Highly recommended.
Revista de Estudios Hispánicos.
[A]n impressive compendium of all of Vargas Llosa’s oeuvre and its thorough analyses make it an indispensable resource in understanding the continuity inherent in his thought and craft.
[tr. into English by Tamesis]
Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica
[F]or the great variety of sources it offers, Köllmann’s study is appropriate for anyone interested in deepening the debates aroused by the work and person of Vargas Llosa, whether at particular moments or in the whole of his public career. A Companion to Mario Vargas Llosa, far from avoiding different perspectives to validate a point of view, offers the tools necessary for his readers to form their own criteria around the work and figure of one of the most important and controversial writers of contemporary Hispanic literature. [tr. into English by Tamesis]
Vargas Llosa’s Fiction & the Demons of Politics:
The British Bulletin of Publications on Latin America, the Caribbean, Portugal and Spain.
This outstanding work has much to recommend it... through references to a wealth of other works the reader understands that we cannot separate literature from politics in the case of Vargas Llosa.
Personal letter from Mario Vargas Llosa
Thank you very much for sending me your book Vargas Llosa’s Fiction and the Demons of Politics, which I have read in one go – something that happens only very rarely with studies dedicated to my work. But yours captured my attention from its first lines, and I could not put it down until the very end. It is a very serious piece of work, which shows an exhaustive knowledge of everything I have written... Apart from the clear judgement and intelligent analyses that appear in your work, I have to thank you for the fair-mindedness and moral purity with which you examine my political position throughout a large part of my life. [dated Lima 18 February 2005, tr. SK]