Taken from Gabriel García Márquez: A Life by Gerald Martin

[Meet the Author: Monday, June 1, 8pm at Books & Books in Coral Gables, FL]



1. He did not “know” his mother until he was 7 years old.

2. He was reared in a world of spirits, constructed by his grandmother, which conflicted in his mind with the rationalism of his grandfather.

3. He showed early talent as painter, singer, and writer; could probably have made a career as any of these.

4. Like Dante, he decided to marry his future wife Mercedes when she was nine, “a little girl with ducks on her dress,” and proposed when she was fourteen; eventually he married her when she was 26 and he was 31 and they are still married today.

5. He has managed to maintain the friendship and esteem of the King of Spain, Bill Clinton, Big Businessmen, and Fidel Castro.

6. He has founded major institutes of film (in Havana) and journalism (in Cartagena, Colombia).

7. He smoked 60 cigarettes a day until he was almost 50 and has survived two cancers.

8. One of his sons is a successful graphic artist and the other is a highly respected film maker in Los Angeles who has worked on the Sopranos, Six Feet Under and many other TV shows and movies.

9. Most of his novels have been filmed but he has always refused to let One Hundred Years of Solitude be turned into a movie. “They would cast someone like Robert Redford and most of us do not have relatives who look like Robert Redford.”

10. He says he prefers women to men, saying: “I feel safer with women.”

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