Books | The unprecedented Gabo will be released in 2024

Not in August but a little earlier, in the spring of 2024, on the tenth anniversary of the author’s death, when the unpublished novel of Gabriel Garcia MarquezAnd See you in August. will be on your usual poster, Random Literature HouseWhere this newspaper was able to know exclusively. Much has been said about this novel, which was initially unfinished, Of some 150 pages, her endless writings and rewrites dragged the Colombian Nobel laureate for years and whose manuscript, like many other papers by the author, is deposited in Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texasthe entity that received the funds.

Gabriel García Márquez is the most widely read author in Latin America and the most translated author of the 21st century, according to Cervantes Institute, overthrowing even the author of Don Quixote. The novel will be released A first class international literary eventwith expected translations into languages ​​such as English, French, German or Arabic.

Our first news of the work is the Colombian’s 1999 reading of the homonymous story in American House Madrid, which he presented as a starting point for the future A novel composed of five stand-alone stories. All five star a woman in her fifties who has subtle, extramarital sexual encounters.

When he read this story at the meeting organized by the Forum of the General Assembly of Authors, García Márquez was 72 years old and had recently beaten cancer. Prioritize writing Live to tell, his long-awaited memoir, which appeared in 2002 and achieved unparalleled publishing success, especially in the American market. Later, in 2004, he arrived The story of two sad prostitutesa new This would be his last work of fiction, however See you in August (which should have appeared by then as well) was definitely in the drawer. The fact that since then The author’s memory problems began to worsen, ending in his later years with significant cognitive decline.

I don’t like the end

For various reasons, the writer’s unpublished writing became intertwined, who, despite having previously announced it to the journalist, did not end up finding a definitive version to his liking. Rose blackberry that he felt “completely satisfied” with the way he dealt with the crisis the protagonist had experienced. A year after the death of the author, his publisher Christopher Berra – whose work was decisive in reforming the text of his memoirs – he revealed at this time He was not entirely satisfied with the outcome of the novel Although he worked extensively on it. It is known that Gabo was able to rewrite his books 14 or 15 times Even reaching the desired result which once posted did not touch a comma. But this final decision was not made in this case and the novel was eventually cancelled.

With this precedent, The difficult decision of whether or not to publish it fell to the family, her two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalowho pondered this possibility for a decade – after all, Gabo, despite his dissatisfaction, did not destroy the manuscript, or rather the manuscripts, because there are many copies preserved – and the work will finally see the light.

The novel, or collection of short stories, depending on how you look at it, tells several stories starring a 52-year-old woman who, for the past 28 years, has made a solitary visit to her mother’s grave on August 16. A town on a Caribbean island. Where poverty coexists with the recent tourist emergency. Although she enjoys a relatively happy and comfortable life with a husband who loves her, she arrives at marriage as a virgin, For the first time in her life, she was swept away by the irresistible desire to have a sexual relationship with a stranger. You pick at random at the local hotel.

Each of the stories that make up the novel feature these sexual encounters with different men as the woman tries to find a reflection of her first lover who has become her obsession ever since. As an intriguing detail, it bears the name of the protagonist Anna Magdalena Bach, and shares a first and last name with the German composer’s second wife. This Caribbean Anna Magdalena is the daughter of a music teacher and the great, life-changing poet born under the notes moon lightDebussy-Gabo was a fan of classical music-, in a bolero arrangement that a girl sings in a hotel bar.

Publication possibility See you in August It was a frequent topic in the Latin American press but gained more intensity when the University of Texas announced that it had digitized the author’s collections and several professional academics were interested in consulting with them. The novel has been made available to researchers at the Harry Ransom Building. The Colombian journalist was one of the first to ask for the manuscript, which she read there for three hours Patricia Lara Salif, A personal friend of the García Márquez family and the person who sold the magazine to its author changes, which was its foundation. According to the Colombian newspaper timeThe journalist read a manuscript “lacking a bit of editing work” with many annotations, including one indicating that the copy had been sent to her agent, Carmen Balcells.

with the mother’s bones

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Another author who also consulted the Texas manuscript is the journalist and professor at the State University of New York, Columbian Gustavo Arango, who recently read it for an academic paper. Incidentally, the Harry Ransom Center website now specifies that documentation for the novel is “restricted” until publication, a formula it takes for granted. Arango, a brilliant geologist, defended the publication of the novel in an essay in Linguistics Globalism Mexico after reading. “It is a novel worth knowing.” According to Arango, despite the fact that Gabo considered in several paragraphs different word choices or different order in paragraphs, It is “a complete story with clear sequences and a precise ending”. In addition, he adds, the ending includes a poignant image, that of the protagonist, Anna Magdalena, taking the bones of her deceased mother from the island, which I would associate it with another memorable scene from a hundred years of isolation Where Rebecca comes home with her parents’ bones in a bag.

There is another aspect, Arango asserts, that there is nothing insignificant, and that would end García Márquez’s literary career in a more gentle way than his last novel had assumed, Memory of my sad bitches, which portrayed an unborn adult who decides to have a night of sex with a 13-year-old virgin about to start a brothel. This funny topic, which baffled its readers a lot, has its counterpart in the novel that we will read next year. See you in August. There, on the contrary, It shows an adult woman making her own decisions, enjoying sex without being predatory And who can never be considered a victim. This novel will be the best finishing touch to one of the most extraordinary literary trajectories of letters in the Spanish language.