Product Description

‘Suddenly, as if a whirlwind had set down roots in the center of the town, the banana company arrived, pursued by the leaf storm’ As a blizzard of warehouses and amusement parlours and slums descends on the small town of Macondo, the inhabitants reel at the accompanying stench of rubbish that makes their home unrecognisable. When the banana company leaves town as fast as it arrived, all they are left with is a void of decay. Living in this devastated and soulless wasteland is one last honourable man, the Colonel, who is determined to fulfil a longstanding promise, no matter how unpalatable it may be. With the death of the detested Doctor, he must provide an honourable burial – and incur the wrath of the rest of Macondo, who would rather see the Doctor rot, forgotten and unattended.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68311 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Review
The most important writer of fiction in any language (Bill Clinton )

About the Author
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927- ) was born in Aracataca, Colombia. His most recent book, Memories of My Melancholy Whores, is his first new novel to be published in a decade and is available as a Penguin Paperback. He is the author of several novels, works of non-fiction and collections of short stories, including Leaf Storm (1955); One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967); The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975); Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981) and The General in His Labyrinth (1989). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

Customer Reviews

A haunting, poetic example of Marquez' early writing.
The book contains Marquez' first novella Leaf Storm, published in 1955, and six short stories. One of these, "Monologue of Isabel Watching it Rain in Macondo", was written the same year as Leaf Storm and can be largely considered as a post-script to it. These, with Nabo (1951, represent the author's earliest work, written while working as a journalist in Bogota.
The four other short stories, published in 1968 are stylistically different and illustrate the impetus thar Marquez, influenced by Borges and Kafka, gave to the phenomenon of Magical Realism. These, such as "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" (which interestingly first appeared in Americam Playboy) and "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings", both display a simplistic power in their story-telling which is combined with a mythical, Freudian imagery that enables Marquez to break down the confines of conventional subject matter.
However, in Leaf Storm itself, we encounter another foundation of Marquez' later development; the town of Macondo. We find it at the turn of the century in a state of social upheaval caused by the arrival of the banana companies. Against this background a mysterious doctor appears in the town and lodges with a colonel and his family whom he later scandalizes by making their servant pregnant; in addition he becomes a pariah, enraging the townspeople by his refusal to treat them.
Some years later the Doctor, now a recluse, hangs himself, leaving the Colonel, to the resentment of the local people, to take responsibility for his burial. It is at this point that the narrative begins; as the Colonel and his daughter cast their minds into the past to come to terms with the nature,not only of the Doctor's life and manner of death, but also with their own existence.
It is here therefore, that Macondo, which was to be the setting for the Nobel prize winning "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (1969), takes shape in Marquez' fertile imagination. It is as he describes, a place where "people are tormented by a prosperous past and the bitterness of an overwhelming and static present". In Leaf Storm the author not only presents us with a town of bricks and mortar, but also the mood of quiet despair that permeates it and, through the invocation of heat, dust, rain and shadows, a vivid sense of atmosphere. As a series of dream-like recollections and memories that join together seamlessly from character to character, it is an ethereal, poetic and truly significant work.

The book that started it all......
This wonderful book by GABO was the first one he wrote. So, it is very subject to the rules of writing. Later on the author would change completely to get the highest level at EL OTOñO DEL PATRIARCA, passing by "ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE". The story is a killing that the author did not witness but that everybody in Colombia knew, and nobody talked about. Maybe because of fear for their own safety. GABO's grandfather told him the story when he was less than 6 years old. As a grown up he investigated by himself. The story happens at the Banana Plantation in Northern Colombia, where the explotator owned the life of their workers because they did no follow the law. American gringos bought the final product. A revolution wanted to start but was stopped by the worst masacre ever in that area. I read this book the first time when it was published by chapters in the local newspaper. Then we knew that this man was going to be the greatest of all times, the Mohamad Ali of the Spanish literature in the 20th century. This book is a must for everybody interested in GABO's work. Jose

I love it
First this one doesn't have the six short stories only the story 'leaf storm'. This was my first introduction to Márquez's works and it wasn't the last. It is the perfect book to start off with as it can take a little time to fully understand magical realism. This book also introduces the characters from 'one hundred years of solitude' which is my favourate book.

If you do buy this book you'll see reviews from papers on the front, first two pages and on the back. I'll quote one from the Observer 'A single sentence of García Márquez often has more meat to it than many whole novels'