despite the more than three years that have passed since his death, the world has not forgotten gabo… and never will. originally from aracataca, colombia, a town that he camouflaged under the identity of the famous macondo of one hundred years of solitude gabriel garcía márquez (march 6, 1927) is already the greatest author that has produced spanish-american literature. these 10 best free books by gabriel garcía márquez confirm the magic of the work of the father of magical realism and nobe winnerwho seduced us with his ability to define a continent in a book, merge reality with fantasy and make some of his stories timeless.
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one hundred years of solitude
Conceived by Gabo in one of his worst economic times, little could the author have foreseen that his work, after being sent to the South American Argentine publisher in 1967, would become an indisputable success. The story of the Buendía family, inhabitant of the lost town of Macondo, not only served to narrate the history of Latin America over several generations, but also to coin the rise of magical realism that prevailed during the 60s and 70s to become a flagship brand of Ibero-American letters. Of the 10 best books by Gabriel García Márquez, this is his magnum opus, without a doubt.
love in times of anger
on more than one occasion, gabo admitted that love in times of cholera was his favorite novel. One of the reasons lies in the history of the author’s own parents as a source of inspiration for the romance between Fermina Daza, married to Dr. Juvenal Urbino, and the lonely Florentine Ariza in a port city in the Colombian Caribbean. Developed throughout the lives of the three protagonists, love in the time of cholera is like a slow bolero, immersing you in the thoughts of characters for whom time is the only hope. published in 1985, the novel was a success and (un)deserved a film adaptation made in 2007.
a chronicle of a death foretold
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From the first page you already know the ending, but the hook is knowing how the pieces of the puzzle fit together that led to the death of Santiago Nasar, accused by Ángela Vicario, recently married to Dr. Bayardo San Román, of being the cause of losing her virginity. the police story that everyone knew but no one dared to stop is closer to a detective novel and receives various influences from the most journalistic gabo. published in 1981, Chronicle of a Death Foretold is inspired by the real case of a man murdered in a Colombian town in 1951.
the colonel has no one to write to him
García Márquez’s second published work was this short novel which, despite its length, contained a story as intense as it was subtle. the protagonist, a colonel who goes to the port every morning waiting for his pension for his services in the war of a thousand days, walks through the streets of a Colombian town, deals with his wife and tries to feed the fighting cock of his deceased. son in the midst of growing poverty. The novel was published in 1961 and Gabo considered it “his best book of hers”.
garbage
The first novel published by Gabo already gave indications of the characters, situations and a town of Macondo that would be recognized after the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude. a short novel that gathers the three perspectives of a family (that of a colonel father, his daughter and his grandson) around the funeral of a man hated by the whole town. In this work, Gabo already manifests his time jumps and other features of magical realism to make it the perfect preamble to the rest of his bibliography.
story of a castaway
The author’s most journalistic work came about after months of investigation into a curious fact that shocked all of Colombia. luis alejandro velasco embarked from mobile, alabama (united states), on the ship caldas, which was shipwrecked, forcing him to spend ten days at sea without food and at the mercy of the castaway’s own calculations regarding when the rescue planes. The story uncovered the contraband trade between the two countries, condemning to oblivion a Colombian hero whose story was turned into a novel by Gabo in 1970.
the autumn of the patriarch
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the figure of the dictator in latin america has been a literary reference evoked like few others by gabo in this book. Conceived as a novel in prose, in which numerous first-person voices are intermingled as perspectives of the tyrant patriarch, the novel was published in 1975 and it seems that Fidel Castro, a close friend of Gabo, did not like it very much.
memories of my sad whores
the last novel by gabriel garcía márquez, published in 2004, caused some controversy after its premiere given the plot it presented: the love story between a An elderly journalist who decides to give herself as a 90th birthday present a night of passion with a working-class teenager who decides to sell her virginity to save her family. The abuse of power, loneliness and death, three of Gabo’s favorite themes, come together in this story set in the city of Barranquilla in the mid-20th century and whose film adaptation was released in 2012.
twelve tales of pilgrims
Gabo was a great novelist but, above all, a short story writer, the nature of most authors of Latin American magical realism. and one of the best examples is this compilation of twelve stories that address the stories of different Latin American characters in European territory: from the elderly exiled president to the German governess who takes care of the children of a Colombian couple, This short story anthology breaks out in what is my favorite story by the Colombian author, your trail of blood in the snow, whose devastating ending redefines the much-needed twist in a genre like short stories.
live to tell
after gabo’s death, the world returned with greater fervor to this work, an autobiography of the author divided into three parts and that helped to better understand his literary universe. throughout its pages, gabriel garcía márquez talks about the stories his grandmother told him, his approach to the great atrocities of the united states government in latin america or the marriage proposal to his wife, mercedes barcha, love of their life. the book was published in 2002.
what are, in your opinion, the 10 best books about gabriel garcía márquez?
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