Mario Vargas Llosa and Patricia Llosa’s summer: from fasting in Marbella to rich cakes in Salzburg | the people

“I didn’t just turn the page, I changed the book,” Isabel Pressler announced at the beginning of this year, shortly after her split from Mario Vargas Llosa. But she’s not the only one who changed books. Next October, the Peruvian writer will publish his new novel ” I dedicate my silence to you (Alfaguara). The title may or may not be confusing. I dedicate my silence to you It’s not about the outcome of his relationship with the Queen of Painted Paper, a chapter about which he doesn’t say a word, but about a more enduring passion: the Peruvian waltz. “Here I tell that story, and with it I thank the secret love that has accompanied me throughout my life: “How I feel about Creole music,” the Nobel Prize winner in Literature explained himself to remove any doubts or doubts.

At 87 years old, Vargas Llosa has turned the page, changed books, and is already thinking about writing the next one. As this newspaper has learned, the writer has devoted the entire summer to re-reading and studying the extensive works of Jean-Paul Sartre because he intends to develop an article or book about the author of this book. Nausea. Not only does he feel that Sartre had a great influence on him, but he also shares with the French existentialist a devotion to Flaubert and Madame Bovary (Vargas Llosa reappears after his breakup with Pressler reading a few paragraphs from Emma Bovary, an allegorical novel, a critique of bourgeois society.) They say that he is an expert in Sartrean thought, a great connoisseur of existential concepts: “existence in itself”, “existence for oneself”, “existence for the other”… According to his environment, he is now “existence for Patricia”. Patricia Llosa, his ex-wife, whom he defined in 2010 as “the visitation’s inverted cousin and an indomitable person.” “So generous that even when she thinks she is scolding me, she gives me the best praise,” she said that year in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech in a concert hall filled with cameras and microphones in Stockholm.

Vargas and Llosa, husband and wife for 50 years and cousins ​​forever, spent the entire summer together. He wrote about it again. In its latest episode The touchstonepublished on Sunday in the newspaper EL PAÍS, carefully recounts his summer vacation with Patricia, the first vacation he enjoyed with her after a long journey. gap Eight years. He says in the first sentence of the text entitled: “After eight years, I returned to heaven.” Back to heaven (If there is any doubt). He then recounts in detail his routine during the last two weeks in the Austrian city of Salzburg: long morning walks with his ex-wife on the banks of the Salzach River and walks in the alleys of Mozart’s Village, and afternoons devoted to intense reading of novels. Lunches and dinners in typical restaurants, opera nights and concerts in the company of friends and family. “The two weeks we spend here make up for the frustrations and bad times of the year because they are dedicated to sheer reality,” explains the author, who began the year by breaking up with Pressler and fleeing the paparazzi and in July was hospitalized in a Madrid clinic due to Covid.

Cousins ​​has surrendered to the pure realism of Salzburg and its most real and physical delights: gastronomy. They ate delicious sausages from Café Tomaselli, Mozart’s favorite; They had a snack at the luxurious Sacher Hotel, where they were served Sacher tart, Empress Sisi’s favorite cake; And they drank Italian wine Trattoria Pan e Vin… In between they enjoyed a musical feast that included a montage of Why Troyan?. This was the first time in Austria that Mario Vargas Llosa had seen Hector Berlioz’s grand opera, made famous by the great soprano Régine Crespin in the 1960s, at the height of the 20th century. bubble Latin American. As seen with Patricia Macbeth by Verdi and the two concerts given by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the exceptional Kirill Petrenko. “It was exciting to see them together again at the music festival. They haven’t missed a single date in 25 years, and Mario stopped coming during the eight days he spent with Isabelle,” say his friends. “The reunion with Patricia and Salzburg is great fun,” they added. For everyone”.

The couple prepared well for this holiday. Food quarantine to flush out metabolic waste is another ancient tradition that has resumed this summer. Before traveling to Austria, they fasted for three weeks at the Buchinger Clinic in Marbella (Málaga). The writer acquired this habit not because of a medical recommendation, but rather a literary one. His editor, the late Carmen Balsels, and his friends Juan Marcet and the poet Jaime Gil de Biedma, introduced him to the ritual, a therapy invented by Otto Buschinger at the beginning of the twentieth century. “This summer Mario followed a low-calorie diet and Patricia followed therapeutic fasting,” their entourage told EL PAÍS. They didn’t just go hungry. They also swam, did relaxation exercises and drank tesitos And chamomile, and they practiced oriental gymnastics, such as Chi KungThey underwent massages and took restorative naps that left them feeling like new. Those close to them concluded that “both are in very good physical condition.”

Vargas Llosa was offered ads twice in his life, but he declined both times. The only time he promoted something without being asked, spontaneously, was in Buschinger’s case. “By fasting, I discovered how delicious it is to eat,” he said in a promotional interview. After his breakup with Patricia, he seems to have rediscovered how “rich” it is to be with her.