Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Chronicle of a Death Foretold

ISBN: 0140157549

Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This was my first experience of reading Marquez though his reputation for titles such as ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ and ‘Love in Time of Cholera’ was known to me. From the title of this short novel and the first two concise perfect sentences, this is a treasure to be savoured. As with the well-known advert, the book is exactly as it says on the tin… It is the chronicle of a death that everyone knew would happen. It is Columbo-esque in its approach; we all know who kills and who gets killed but the mystery isn’t the reason we are gripped. The inevitability is part of the appeal. The language, translated from Spanish, is like silk falling on the skin. It tingles and caresses us. The level of description and pace is so exact as to be engulfing. With less than 125 pages this novel is small in length only and can be polished off in a lazy afternoon. It leaves you feeling nourished by a fantastic piece of writing. It is packed with great characters and skips along at a cantering pace. Read it – you will not be disappointed.

Reviewed By: Jeanette Rycroft

Posted in Book Reviews