Friday, April 18, 2014

Gabriel García Márquez, Nobel laureate writer, dies aged 87

Colombian author became standard-bearer for Latin American letters after success of One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez in Monterrey in 2007
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez in Monterrey in 2007. Photograph: Tomas Bravo/Reuters
The Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, who unleashed the worldwide boom in Spanish language literature and magical realism with his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, died at the age of 87. He had been admitted to hospital in Mexico City on 3 April with pneumonia.

Matching commercial success with critical acclaim, García Márquez became a standard-bearer for Latin American letters, establishing a route for negotiations between guerillas and the Colombian government, building a friendship with Fidel Castro and maintaining a feud with fellow literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa that lasted more than 30 years.

Barack Obama said the world had lost "one of its greatest visionary writers", adding that he cherished an inscribed copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude, presented to him by the author on a visit to Mexico. "I offer my thoughts to his family and friends, whom I hope take solace in the fact that Gabo's work will live on for generations to come."
More

Obituary: catalyst of boom in Latin American literature
Gabriel García Márquez – a life in pictures
From the archive: 1970 review of One Hundred Years of Solitude

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