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One Hundred Years of Solitude cover art

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Written by: Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa - translator
Narrated by: John Lee
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Publisher's Summary

Includes a bonus PDF with a character chart!

One of the twentieth century’s enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.

The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth—these universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©1964 Gabriel García Márquez (P)2013 Blackstone Audio

What listeners say about One Hundred Years of Solitude

Average Customer Ratings
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waste of time

Narration was alright, but the book is terrible. I thought Don Quixote was long winded! Holy moly is this book ever boring! Not to mention that it's chock full of pointless details and meaningless rambling that goes nowhere and that every generation of the family renames the kids the same names, one guy even had 17 sons all named after himself. Keeping track of what is going on, and what time period it is, and who is being referred to literally requires a family tree chart and a timeline guide of events. There is NO plot line. No real story even, it's just the meandering history of a family who established a village and then engaged in incest, with only a few exceptions in the family tree, which eventually resulted in the extinction of their family line. Which apparently was inconsequential anyway as the entire village dried up and left after some mysterious 5 year monsoon, and then gets wiped out by a hurricane. So it was all for naught. Some classic! At least Don Quixote had a plot line. They must have been desperate to give that Nobel prize away!

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10 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • JCV
  • 2022-05-20

Challenging.

I found this a tough listen, and also a tough read. It's very challenging as a story for the story itself, but also the structure, and the characters. This book was recommended to me by a family member who loved it, and has read it several times. I didn't enjoy it at all in either print or audio format.

That said, it is an immensely diligent saga in the literary tradition - this story is not written so much for entertainment as statement of culture, family, roles, history, historical events, politics. It should be consumed slowly like good scotch - and probably with a good scotch. Both take patience.

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5 people found this helpful

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Great Story

let's just say that the story spans over an entire family liniege and makes you feel like you were there with them through the their entire life experience. well told and written story.

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5 people found this helpful

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Astounding

I loved this book, from "cover to cover" it was a whirlwind of carefully planned twists and mutations that always kept me wanting more. Though at times I found it difficult to follow the characters' states at points in the novel I was happy to gloss over a past chapter once if not twice more and discover new and exciting intricacies that make me think I will have to revisit this book at a later date.

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4 people found this helpful

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An Enlightening View of South Amerindian Culture

Garcia weaves a colourful narrative of South Amerindian society at the confluence of the technological, scientific and industrial developments of the last century. The cast of characters will intrigue the reader and will linger long in one’s memory. A great read!!

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4 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Ugh.

Narration = Brilliant.

Story = I'm an open-minded person but the entire book is full of matter-of-fact child grooming and molestation, incest, prostitution, and the 1950s era "no means yes" rape of women thinly veiled behind "magical realism." There's a lot of 1950s-style prejudice that's hard to overlook. The family history is repetitive, seven generations all have the same names, and their stories are so convoluted you never know what's going on. The characters are so unlikable, you also don't care. The fact this won a Nobel back in the day speaks to how far we've come as a society and how ass-backwards the last century was. I had to listen to this twice for Uni; it sucked both times, and I'm kind of appalled that universities are teaching this garbage as "classic" and "brilliant."

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3 people found this helpful

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A wonderful book

A multi generation story that holds your interest throughout. The writing is superb with the right amount of pathos and humour. Some attention required as there are a large number of characters, some with similar names.

The narration by John Lee is spot on.

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2 people found this helpful

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Breathtaking

I purchased this on a whim based on an Audible recommendation, and it was worth every moment. Often translated works can be awkward but this translation is spot on, and John Lee is the perfect narrator for this bizarre and sprawling novel. One of the most enjoyable Audible experiences I’ve ever had!

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

creative writing expose

the writer had a very creative passion for developing characters ... and incest...

interesting, but ultimately meaningless.

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1 person found this helpful

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Amazing

One the most beautiful things I’ve ever experienced. An amazing story, much funnier than I expected.

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1 person found this helpful