Luis Sepulveda, celebrated Chilean writer, dies at 70 from COVID-19 complications

Luis Sepulveda was one of the most celebrated authors of Chile. He died at the age of 70 on Thursday, April 16, 2020, due to COVID-19. He was was a committed writer who was exiled by the Pinochet dictatorship for his political activities. He is best known for his 1992 novel titled The Old Man Who Read Love Stories. Luis Sepulveda was a very successful writer in Europe where he has been based since the 1980s. Other than this, he is also appreciated for his honours and depictions of life in South America. His works have been translated in are sold in over 50 countries. Luis Sepulveda has a range of novels, chronicles and has even written children’s stories. May his soul rest in peace. 

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The life of Luis Sepulveda

Luis Sepulveda was born on October 4, 1949, in the city of Ovalle which is located in the north of the Chilean capital Santiago. From a young age, he worked as a political activist and was the first for Chile’s Communist Youth, and then for the Socialists. He was arrested and jailed in 1973 under the military regime of Augusto Pinochet. He was in jail for two-and-a-half years. In one of the 2003 books titled La locura de Pinochet, he wrote: “I write because I believe in the militant force of words,” while describing his time in jail. 

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Luis Sepulveda never got a chance to return to Chile and live there. But in 2017, he got his Chilean nationality back. After he was stripped of his nationality he travelled around Latin America, where he founded theatre troupes. He did it in countries like Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. In 1978, Lius Sepulveda also spent a year living with the indigenous Shuar people in the Amazon under a UNESCO study programme.

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After this, Luis Sepulveda released his first novel published in 1992, titled The Old Man Who Read Love Stories. This book was a story redefine man’s relationship with nature. It was translated in 35 languages and was sold across the globe. It was also made into a movie in 2001 by Rolf de Heer and starred Richard Dreyfuss in the main role.

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Other popular work of Luis Sepulveda is The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her to Fly (1996). Luis Sepulveda settled in Europe in 1982 in the German city of Hamburg. He lived there as a journalist and sailed the seas for several years on environmental activist group Greenpeace’s boats. As a sideline, Luis Sepulveda also wrote screenplays and directed films. He first began showing symptoms of COVID-19 on February 25 after returning from a festival in Portugal.