Tras Las Claves de Melquiades

Eligio Garcia Marquez (1947-2001) died of cancer three months after publishing this 630-page treatise on the making of Cien Anos de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude). He was 17 years younger than his iconic brother, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Though he studied to be a theoretical physicist, Eligio became a journalist and had published three books; most recently, he was the general director of Cambio (Change), a prestigious Colombian monthly magazine. This is a detailed account of the family history, friendships, literary connections, sociopolitical factors, and childhood memories that came together to shape Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize-winning masterpiece. The book spans Gabriel's life up to 1967, when One Hundred Years of Solitude was first published in Argentina. This work brings to life the author, the publishing industry, and the intellectuals of the time, through materials culled from archives, letters, published writings, and interviews. Eligio is a scientist at work as he meticulously revisits places and people while telling an intriguing story. This book is a fascinating piece of South American literary history, as well as a biography that only a brother could write. Highly recommended. Tatiana de la Tierra, Univ. at Buffalo Undergraduate Lib., NY