Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died aged 87.
A sad day I think for all lovers of fiction and particularly for those of us who have an interest in Latin American literature and particular in the genre known as 'Magic Realism' which Marquez in inexorably linked to.
Whilst his death was not that unexpected, he had been ill for several years now (unlike another key Latin American author Carlos Fuentes who died quite suddenly in 2012), it still comes as something of a shock.
Marquez is seen by many people, readers and writers alike, both within and outside of Latin America as its most significant (if not greatest) novelist in the past 100 years, speaking of which his novel 100 Years of Solitude is his best known work.
Along with Argentinian Julio Cortzar (my favourite 20th Century Latin American author alongside Borges and Alejio Carpentier) Mexican Carlos Fuentes and Peruvian Maria Vargos Llosa (whose novel Feast of the Goat rivals 100 Years of Solitude) Marquez helped spark the Latin boom of the 1960s and 70s culminating in him receiving the Nobel Prize in 1982.
I have all of Marquez's translated works in English, so this has moved me to plan reviews of some of his lesser known works this year.
Following is a link that provides some further details on Marquez, a life not without its controversies.
BBC News - Tributes pour in for Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Cheers.
A sad day I think for all lovers of fiction and particularly for those of us who have an interest in Latin American literature and particular in the genre known as 'Magic Realism' which Marquez in inexorably linked to.
Whilst his death was not that unexpected, he had been ill for several years now (unlike another key Latin American author Carlos Fuentes who died quite suddenly in 2012), it still comes as something of a shock.
Marquez is seen by many people, readers and writers alike, both within and outside of Latin America as its most significant (if not greatest) novelist in the past 100 years, speaking of which his novel 100 Years of Solitude is his best known work.
Along with Argentinian Julio Cortzar (my favourite 20th Century Latin American author alongside Borges and Alejio Carpentier) Mexican Carlos Fuentes and Peruvian Maria Vargos Llosa (whose novel Feast of the Goat rivals 100 Years of Solitude) Marquez helped spark the Latin boom of the 1960s and 70s culminating in him receiving the Nobel Prize in 1982.
I have all of Marquez's translated works in English, so this has moved me to plan reviews of some of his lesser known works this year.
Following is a link that provides some further details on Marquez, a life not without its controversies.
BBC News - Tributes pour in for Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Cheers.
