Seven generations of one family in the dreamlike town of Macondo
What it is about
The Buendía family founds the town of Macondo and lives through love, war and strange miracles across seven generations. The book mixes everyday life with magic and treats both as equally real. It was first published in Spanish in 1967.
Who will enjoy it
Readers who like big family sagas and do not mind a book that bends time and logic.
What you will get
A rich, strange epic that rewards slow reading. Keep the family tree handy, since names repeat across the generations.
Behind the book
In his own telling, García Márquez got the idea on a drive to Acapulco in 1965, and he then spent about eighteen months writing the book.
Source: Harry Ransom Center
One Hundred Years of Solitude Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Literary Fiction · Family · Magical realism · Time
Length
417 pages · ≈ 12 h
More about this book
Characters
The Buendía family, above all José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula.
Setting
The invented town of Macondo, cut off from the wider world.
What makes it different
Magic is told as plain fact.
Feel
Dreamy, funny and sad, with a very long view of time.
Love in the Time of Cholera
Midnight's Children
Beloved
Life of Pi
The Handmaid’s Tale