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Cover of No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel García Márquez

No One Writes to the Colonel

Gabriel García Márquez

  • 105 pages · about 2 hours
  • First published 1961
  • 86 editions
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1 About this book

No One Writes to the Colonel (Spanish: El coronel no tiene quien le escriba) is a 1961 novella written by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez. It also gives its name to a short story collection. García Márquez considered it his best book, saying that he had to write One Hundred Years of Solitude so that people would read No One Writes to the Colonel.

The novella was written between 1956 and 1957 while the author was living in Paris in the Hotel des Trois Colleges and was first published in 1958, in Mito Revista Bimestral de Cultura v. IV no. 19 (May-June 1958), with first separate publication in 1961.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Good for readers who want: magical realism and a short read.

  • Magic realism
  • Manners and customs in fiction
  • Social conditions
  • Older men
  • Loneliness

2 About Gabriel García Márquez

1927–2014

Gabriel José García Márquez (Latin American Spanish: ; 6 March 1928 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo or Gabito throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, particularly in the Spanish language, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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