Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littin

by Gabriel García Márquez

Paperback

Published November 23, 1988

About the author

Gabriel José de la Concordia Garcí­a Márquez was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. Garcí­a Márquez, familiarly known as "Gabo" in his native country, was considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

He studied at the University of Bogotá and later worked as a reporter for the Colombian newspaper El Espectador and as a foreign correspondent in Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Caracas, and New York. He wrote many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best-known for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for popularizing a literary style labeled as magical realism, which uses magical elements and events in order to explain real experiences. Some of his works are set in a fictional village called Macondo, and most of them express the theme of solitude.

Having previously written shorter fiction and screenplays, García Márquez sequestered himself away in his Mexico City home for an extended period of time to complete his novel Cien años de soledad, or One Hundred Years of Solitude, published in 1967. The author drew international acclaim for the work, which ultimately sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. García Márquez is credited with helping introduce an array of readers to magical realism, a genre that combines more conventional storytelling forms with vivid, layers of fantasy.

Another one of his novels, El amor en los tiempos del cólera (1985), or Love in the Time of Cholera, drew a large global audience as well. The work was partially based on his parents' courtship and was adapted into a 2007 film starring Javier Bardem. García Márquez wrote seven novels during his life, with additional titles that include El general en su laberinto (1989), or The General in His Labyrinth, and Del amor y otros demonios (1994), or Of Love and Other Demons.

(Arabic: جابرييل جارسيا ماركيز) (Hebrew: גבריאל גארסיה מרקס) (Ukrainian: Ґабріель Ґарсія Маркес) (Belarussian: Габрыель Гарсія Маркес) (Russian: Габриэль Гарсия Маркес)

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an odd book. Technically, it’s a memoir by Littin as told to Marquez but since it was published in 1986 at the height of Marquez’s fame, his name gets top billing. It’s the fascinating story of Littin sneaking into the country under an assumed identity to make a movie about Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship twelve years after he’d been exiled. It’s a slender book and serves as a crash course on modern Chilean history that reads like a spy novel. Strangely enough, I read the chapter on Concepcion while I flew into the city. When the book came out in 1987, 15,000 copies were burned in Valparaiso.

[Lisa Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating story; certainly got more widespread attention with GGM as the author. Compelling narrative.