8 Really Magical Books for Fans of Gabriel García Márquez

"'Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

There's a reason this 1967 novel is widely considered to be one of the greatest pieces of fiction ever written. As the writer William Kennedy famously declared, it is "the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race." 

The book tells the story of seven generations of the Buendía family in the town they built and dominated, Macondo. Over the decades, this idyllic place becomes the epicenter of war, development, and even a miracle or two. The Buendías may try to escape their family legacy but history cannot help but repeat itself. Is Macondo doomed to fail? Was it always meant to be this way? Through García Márquez's astonishingly detailed and poetic novel, he tackles it all and then some.

In Columbia of the 18th century, so claims our author, a mysterious legend was formed. Sierva María de Todos Los Angeles is the twelve-year-old daughter of the Marquis Ygnacio and his wife Bernarda. She has never cut her hair, and was promised to the saints when she was born. After a rabid dog bites her, young Sierva María is accused of being possessed by demons and requires an exorcism. Is this strange young woman cursed, or does the stranglehold of the Catholic Church in the region merely see her as an easy target for scapegoating?

García Márquez got ambitious with this 1989 novel that fictionalized the last seven months of the life of Simón Bolívar, the dictator of Venezuela and one of the most important figures in South American history. The book traces Bolívar's final journey from Bogotá to Columbia as he tries to leave the continent for exile in Europe. 

It's a genre-bending novel that delves into intense historical detail but with a surreal blend and iconoclastic approach to Bolívar's decline. The General in His Labyrinth was controversial upon release, with some Venezuelan critics claiming it was unfair in its depiction of Bolívar. Others, however, saw it as an empathetic portrait of a man oft-deified by the history books.

How long would you wait for the one you love? Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall in love in their youths, but must keep their relationship secret from their strict fathers. Even as circumstances try to tear them apart, they continue to communicate via letters and telegraph. But When Fermina decides that her love for Florentino was all a childhood illusion, she breaks things off and marries a man her father approves of. 

Florentino, however, swore to stay faithful to his one true love (but not necessarily chaste). Love in the Time of Cholera was a huge hit worldwide and was chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her legendary Book Club.

Without Gabriel García Márquez, there would be no Isabel Allende. The Chilean writer is another major voice in Latin American literature and magical realism, and cited García Márquez as one of her key influences. Her debut novel, 1982's The House of the Spirits, was written while she was in exile in Caracas following the government coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. She used the novel as a way to exorcise the ghosts of the Pinochet regime and explore the memories of her youth, particularly her dear grandfather. It was an instant hit and has been translated into over 20 languages.

The House of the Spirits follows the Trueba family over four generations of life and change in Chile. Esteban is the patriarch who craves political power. His wife Clara has paranormal powers that allow her to predict death. Their daughter Blanca forms an intense connection with a boy named Pedro, a love that her father forbids because he deems Pedro to be unworthy of her. But fate has different plans for them all, as well as those who will follow in their footsteps. 

"When I read the line I thought to myself that I didn’t know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago." So said García Márquez about The Metamorphosis by Kafka, one of the most influential pieces of surrealist literature ever written. Kafka’s work is perhaps too nihilistic to be seen as magical realist but you can see how his most famous story, about the bureaucratic and emotional hellscape that befalls a man who wakes up one morning to discover he’s been turned into a cockroach, helped to pave the way for that genre. 

The Argentinian short story writer and essayist Jorge Luis Borges frequently experimented with genres and mythology, and his work was a major influence on the magical realist movement of Latin American fiction. Indeed, it was through the boom of that genre, and writers like García Márquez, that his work became more popular outside of his home country. Ficciones is a collection that includes 17 of his most beloved short stories, such as "The Lottery in Babylon" and “The Library of Babel.”

Mexican-born Jewish-American writer Ilan Stavans has written prolifically about Latino literature and authors such as Pablo Neruda and Miguel de Cervantes. His 2009 biography of García Márquez provides a dense portrait of the author's life up to the moment that changed it forever: the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Stavans spent over a decade researching this book, finding new insights into a literary icon that helped us to better understand how he came to shape an entire generation and genre of Latin American literature.