The Peruvian nobel recounts how he met Julio Cortázar and his wife in 1958. Mrs. Bernárdez died this past weekend and for Vargas Llosa she was an excellent translator, a very delicate person and with her, Cortázar lived his best literary years.

“I met Aurora Bernárdez and Julio Cortázar in 1958 in Paris. I was always impressed with her intelligence and literary knowledge. It was wonderful to hear them speak when they were married. They expressed an intelligence as if they had rehearsed it, almost theatrical. Aurora's literary and personal culture was as rich as Julio's. I always thought she was an unspoken writer, but in a gesture of generosity and heroism decided that her family would have only one writer. Cortazar's best literary period was at her side.”

Read the complete text here.