Celebrated novelist Gabriel García Márquez, who achieved global fame as a writer and founding father of the magical realism genre, has died. García Márquez was in his home in Mexico recovering from an infection that hospitalized him for nine days late last month. He was 87.
García Márquez, also known as “Gabo,” was born in Aracataca, Colombia on March 6, 1927. The genre that he occupied was dominated with his works but none more than his 1967 novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, and the 1985 work Love in the Time of Cholera. García Márquez was equally adored by readers and critics and while his work was centered in Latin America, the universal appeal of his novels spoke to his formidable talent.
García Márquez,received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982 for his novels and short stories. One Hundred Years of Solitude went on to sell more than 50 million copies and has been translated into 25 different languages. Conflicting sources say the book has sold just over 30 million but has been translated into 37 different languages.
Despite the differing figures, that feat established García Márquez as the Spanish language’s most popular writer since Miguel de Cervantes in the 17th century. Even more astounding, books written by García Márquez have outsold every Spanish language book ever aside from the Holy Bible.
Two family members confirmed news of the passing to TIME magazine, speaking on condition of anonymity
Rest Powerfully, Señor Gabo.
[NYT]
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Photo: Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara/Wikipedia Commons
