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.

Mr. Vargas Llosa, who ran for Peru’s presidency in 1990 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, transformed episodes from his personal life into books that reverberated far beyond the borders of his native country.

Peru has declared a national day of mourning with flags flying at half-mast on government premises in memory of writer and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. Vargas Llosa died at the age of 89 on Sunday in the Peruvian capital,