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Until August, by Gabriel García Márquez (2024 posthumous)
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Premise: A woman‘s annual trip to an island to visit her mother‘s grave becomes an opportunity to explore her sexuality outside her marriage.

Review: This release of an unfinished work by Márquez is very good. The only thing that made it feel unfinished is its ending, which felt rushed, with some magical realism that hadn‘t been earned.

An unexpected little gem from Marquez‘s last days. It‘s definitely very different (simpler in a way) from his earlier works, but I found the message beautiful, profound, even surprising. A quick and easy read but with a lot to say. I‘m glad his family decided to publish it.

I don't typically read books that were published posthumously, but this was on the librarian recommendation shelf. The story follows Ana Magdalena Bach on her annual journeys to the island where her mother is buried. 3⭐️

This is actually the first novel by Garcia Marquez I was reading. I‘ve read it for our village‘s book club bwcause normally it is not my type of literature. And I‘ve seen the reviews about characters not as deep and derailed as he normally used to write them, but I liked this short read and it‘s novella-like form.

A short story and the last written before the authors death - it‘s remained unpublished until 2023 as Gabriel Garcia Marquez didn‘t feel it was good enough . It was fabulous - he‘s never written a bad book and still hasn‘t . I loved it !

"Judging the book to be much better than we remembered it, another possibility occurred to us: that the fading faculties that kept him from finishing the book also kept him from realizing how good it was. In an act of betrayal, we decided to put his readers' pleasure ahead of all other considerations. If they are delighted, it's possible Gabo might forgive us. In that we trust."

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Sitting alone beside the languorous blue waters of the lagoon, Ana Magdalena Bach contemplates the men at the hotel bar. She has been happily married for twenty-seven years and has no reason to escape the life she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels by ferry here to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.

Certainly not his best, but a unique story. I certainly don‘t like the protagonist but she isn‘t boring. And frankly, I was surprised by the ending.

This book was not for me. While I understand it‘s undeveloped because the author was unhappy with it, and didn‘t choose to publish it before he died-that‘s not the issue. I listened to this on audiobook, and the narration is terrible. Mostly I think because of the translation? It‘s hard to understand very disjointed, and does not flow at all. It‘s a very hard to listen to. Additionally, I just didn‘t care for the story at all.

I wanted to share this piece. I know it will factor into the decisions of some of us on whether to read his book or not.

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/06/1236246186/gabriel-garcia-marquez-novel-until-aug...