In Evil Hour (18 page)
Authors: Gabriel Garcia Marquez,Gregory Rabassa
âMy favourite book by one of the world's greatest authors. You're in the hands of a master' Mariella Frostrup
âOn the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on â¦'
When newly-wed Ãngela Vicario and Bayardo San Román are left to their wedding night, Bayardo discovers that his new wife is no virgin. Disgusted, he returns Ãngela to her family home that very night, where her humiliated mother beats her savagely and her two brothers demand to know her violator, whom she names as Santiago Nasar.
As he wakes to thoughts of the previous night's revelry, Santiago is unaware of the slurs that have been cast against him. But with Ãngela's brothers set on avenging their family honour, soon the whole town knows who they plan to kill, where, when and why.
âA masterpiece'
Evening Standard
âA work of high explosiveness â the proper stuff of Nobel prizes. An exceptional novel'
The Times
âBrilliant writer, brilliant book'
Guardian
âThe stories are rich and unsettling, confident and eloquent. They are magical' John Updike
Sweeping through crumbling towns, travelling fairs and windswept ports, Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez introduces a host of extraordinary characters and communities in his mesmerising tales of everyday life: smugglers, bagpipers, the President and Pope at the funeral of Macondo's revered matriarch; a very old angel with enormous wings. Teeming with the magical oddities for which his novels are loved, Márquez's stories are a delight.
âThese stories abound with love affairs, ruined beauty, and magical women. It is essence of Márquez'
Guardian
âOf all the living authors known to me, only one is undoubtedly touched by genius: Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez'
Sunday Telegraph
âMárquez writes in this lyrical, magical language that no one else can do' Salman Rushdie
âThese stories abound with love affairs, ruined beauty, and magical women. It is the essence of Márquez'
Guardian
âEréndira was bathing her grandmother when the wind of misfortune began to blow â¦'
Whilst her grotesque and demanding grandmother retires to bed, Eréndira still has floors to wash, sheets to iron, and a peacock to feed. The never-ending chores leave the young girl so exhausted that she collapses into bed with the candle still glowing on a nearby table â and is fast asleep when it topples over â¦
Eight hundred and seventy-two thousand, three hundred and fifteen pesos, her grandmother calculates, is the amount that Eréndira must repay her for the loss of the house. As she is dragged by her grandmother from town to town and hawked to soldiers, smugglers and traders, Eréndira feels herself dying. Can the love of a virgin save the young whore from her hell?
âIt becomes more and more fun to read. It shows what “fabulous” really means'
Time Out
âMárquez writes in this lyrical, magical language that no-one else can do' Salman Rushdie
âOne of this century's most evocative writers' Anne Tyler
âMárquez writes in this lyrical, magical language that no-one else can do' Salman Rushdie
âSuddenly, as if a whirlwind had set down roots in the centre 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 unrecognizable. 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 â and incur the wrath of the rest of Macondo, who would rather see the Doctor rot, forgotten and unattended.
âThe most important writer of fiction in any language' Bill Clinton
âMárquez is a retailer of wonders'
Sunday Times
âAn exquisite writer, wise, compassionate, and extremely funny'
Sunday Telegraph
