Product Description

Renowned as a master of magical realism, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has long delighted readers around the world with his exquisitely crafted prose.Brimming with unforgettable characters and set in exotic locales, his fiction transports readers to a world that is at once fanciful, haunting, and real.

Leaf Storm, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's first novella, introduces the mythical village of Macondo, a desolate town beset by torrents of rain, where a man must fulfill a promise made years earlier.

No One Writes to the Colonel is a novella of life in a decaying tropical town in Colombia with an unforgettable central character.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a dark and profound story of three people joined together in a fatal act of violence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #192771 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-01
• Released on: 1999-09-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060932664
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Library Journal
All three of these psychologically provocative novellas by 1982 Nobel Laureate Garcia Marquez involve the turmoil of violent death in small, lethargic Colombian villages. "Leaf Storm," like Antigone, poses a conflict over burial. The colonel is set on honoring the local doctor with a burial despite the wishes of the townspeople, who hate him because he refused to treat the wounded after an outburst of political violence. In "No One Writes to the Colonel," another colonel waits as if for Godot for a pension check from the government that never comes. Is his faith in the future all that matters--or is it irresponsible? "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" concerns the murder of a man for allegedly making love to a woman who on her wedding night to another is unable to prove her virginity. The tension stems from why no one, including the local priest, tries to stop the murder when everyone knows just how it will happen. Highly recommended.
- Jack Shreve, Allegany Community Coll., Cumberland, Md.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Every scene, every gesture sings life and denies death...He is an absolute master." -- -- New York Times

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish

Customer Reviews

Two out of three ain't bad.
The less said about 'Leaf Storm,' the better, I think. It was Garcia Marquez's first piece of long fiction, written in his twenties, and the truth is, it's not very good. Actually, it's pretty bad. It's overwritten in that 'bad Faulkner' way, and it lacks anything that would make for an interesting story--compelling characters, powerful conflicts, interesting ideas--none of these are to be found therein. It feels as if it should have received quite a bit of revision before publication. As it stands, its only real value is as an embryonic draft of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

'No One Writes to the Colonel,' on the other hand, is a truly excellent story. It's a slow, meditative piece with very little action, chronicling a month or so in the life of the title character and his wife in a stagnant Colombian town as he waits in vain for the pension, which he has been owed for fifteen years, to arrive in the mail. Although it's a subdued story saturated with sorrow and regret, it also features a strong undercurrent of hope which cannot be extinguished. The Colonel is an inspiring character, and, after One Hundred Years of Solitude, his story is my favorite thing I've read by Garcia Marquez. Apparently there's been a movie made of it, but I have no desire to see it.

'Chronicle of a Death Foretold' is also very good. It tells of the events surrounding and leading up to a brutal murder which ultimately implicates an entire town. Featuring the recollections of dozens of characters who were involved in the event, peripherally or seriously, it weaves a mesmerizing web of small events that all happen just the wrong way. The death is indeed 'foretold;' it could easily have been prevented by just about anyone in the story, yet somehow, no one does. In spite of knowing what's going to happen from the beginning, the story remains riveting, and even suspenseful, throughout. Don't miss it.

This volume is certainly a must-own for Garcia Marquez fans. Combined with Collected Stories, it includes the entire body of his early short fiction--so don't buy Leaf Storm and Other Stories, No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories, Innocent Erdendira and Other Stories, or Chronicle of a Death Foretold. They're redundant. No sense flinging money out windows, eh? Cheers!

Great Affordable Collection
Here between the bounds of this paperback we have 3 very good translations of short novels from the hand of Marquez...although I have yet to fully grasp "Leaf Storm", it does offer to the reader a sort of prelude to "Macondo"...although don't expect the world to be potrayed as it was in "One Hundred years of Solitude". ...the 2nd novella "No One Writes Colonel" is a great read...here is everyday life, as the colonel awaits a letter...however it is the third novella, "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" that drew me in, as a gripping page turner. Marquez holds our interest with his detailed account, even though we already know the outcome. It is a great collection and a good follow up if you have finished "One Hundred Years of Solitude". Highly recommended because in this edition you get al three works, whilst you could pay up to thrice as much if you pursued them seperately....

Gabo is great from the beginning
LEAF STORM:

'Leaf Storm' is known as the first novella published by Gabriel García Márquez. And from this debut is possible to see how big he would become one day. This book tells a very simple story that acquires multiple levels as it is told.

After the death of an infamous doctor of Macondo his only friends, this friend's daughter and her son gather to the funerals. The dead man is known as the devil and everyone hates him. His death made the city very happy. As the story is unfolded, we learn why he's so hated and how come the threesome ended up there to mourn him.

Using multiple points of views, Gabo gives the three protagonists chances to speak to themselves and we can find out how dreadful is to each of one be there. The writer is able to switch the point of view, and also the language --after all, a little boy does not speak as an old man. This is one of the remarkable qualities of this wonderful novella.

This is the very first time that the imaginary place Macondo appears in Gabo's story and it became a seminal place of his stories --among them the masterpiece 'A Hundred years of solitude'.