‘THOUSAND YEARS OF SOLITUDE AND SADNESS’ OVER NOBEL LAUREATE’S DEATH, SAYS COLOMBIA
CARTAGENA, April 18 — Presidents and fellow writers have been paying tribute to Nobel prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez who has died in Mexico aged 87, reports BBC.
The author was considered one of the greatest Spanish-language writers, best known for his masterpiece of magical realism, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and US President Barack Obama were those among praising his legacy.
Obama said the world had “lost one of its greatest visionary writers”.
While, Santos took to Twitter to pay tribute to Garcia Marquez.
“A thousand years of solitude and sadness because of the death of the greatest Colombian of all time! Such giants never die,” he wrote.
Former US President Bill Clinton (R) speaks with Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Cartagena, Colombia, on March 26, 2007. Bill Clinton said Garcia Marquez had “captured the pain and joy of our common humanity”
Garcia Marquez had been ill and had made few public appearances recently. He was released from hospital in Mexico City last week following a lung and urinary tract infection, but was said to be “very fragile” because of his age.
He achieved fame for pioneering magical realism, a unique blending of the marvellous and the mundane in a way that made the extraordinary seem routine.
One Hundred Years of Solitude sold more than 30 million copies and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
“A great artist is gone, but his grand art remains with us. Most authors are only shadows, but Gabriel Garcia Marquez belonged to those who cast a shadow, and he will continue to do so long after his death,” said Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Nobel Prize-awarding Swedish Academy.
With his books, Marquez brought Latin America’s charm and teaming contradictions to life in the minds of millions of people.
The news of his death was announced by a spokeswoman for the family, Fernanda Familiar.
“Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died,” she said.
“[His wife] Mercedes and her sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo, have authorized me to provide the information. Such deep sadness,” she added.
Former US President Bill Clinton also said: “I was always amazed by his unique gifts of imagination, clarity of thought, and emotional honesty. I was honored to be his friend and to know his great heart and brilliant mind for more than 20 years.”
Peruvian Nobel prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, with whom Garcia Marquez had a long-running feud which resulted in a street fight in 1976, called him a “great writer”.
“His works gave literature great reach and prestige. His novels will survive and will continue to find new readers everywhere,” he told Peruvian media.