One Hundred Years of Solitude

This is a classic book and in the top ten books I have read if I was pushed. This is the edition I have in paperback.

It was written in 1967 by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I first read this book 40 years ago, the year after the author won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I read most of his other books as well. Some people prefer a later work 'Love in the time of Cholera' but there is a great deal of geographical interest in this book as well as the author's characteristic "magic realism". There are some remarkable descriptive passages and memorable characters: notably the mysterious Melquiades.

There are some particularly geographical scenes and stories peppered throughout the book, including an introduction to ice in the opening chapter which introduces the idea of 'magic realism'.

I love the description of the rocks in the river bed of Macondo: like dinosaurs eggs.

There is the invasion of the banana company who force their way into the jungle and fence off the forest.

The family's fate is already written perhaps... 

Check it out if you haven't already read it.