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Zusatztext “A fascinating tour de force and a moving tribute to an extraordinary man.” –Margaret Atwood! New York Times Book Review “A distinguished book…García Márquez splendidly presents his image of Latin America and of a great man redux.” – Los Angeles Times Book Review “A stunning portrait! convincing and poignant.” – San Francisco Chronicle “Passage after passage shines with the brilliance of García Márquez…He has invented some of the magic characters of our age. His General! however! is not only magic! but real.” – The Wall Street Journal “As usual! García Márquez’s craftsmanship is nothing less than superb. His General’s story is tragic; his telling of it is luminous.” – Dallas Morning News Translated and with a new Introduction by Edith Grossman Informationen zum Autor García Márquez was born in Aracataca, Colombia, in 1928. He attended the University of Bogotá and went on to become a reporter for the Colombian newspaper El Espectador . He later served as a foreign correspondent in Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Caracas, and New York. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, he is the author of several novels and collections, including No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories , The Autumn of the Patriarch , Innocent Erendira and Other Stories , Chronicle of a Death Foretold , The General in His Labyrinth , Strange Pilgrims , and Love and Other Demons . Klappentext Gabriel García Márquez's most political novel is the tragic story of General Simón Bolívar, the man who tried to unite a continent. Bolívar, known in six Latin American countries as the Liberator, is one of the most revered heroes of the western hemisphere; in García Márquez's brilliant reimagining he is magnificently flawed as well. The novel follows Bolívar as he takes his final journey in 1830 down the Magdalena River toward the sea, revisiting the scenes of his former glory and lamenting his lost dream of an alliance of American nations. Forced from power, dogged by assassins, and prematurely aged and wasted by a fatal illness, the General is still a remarkably vital and mercurial man. He seems to remain alive by the sheer force of will that led him to so many victories in the battlefields and love affairs of his past. As he wanders in the labyrinth of his failing powers-and still-powerful memories-he defies his impending death until the last. The General in His Labyrinth is an unforgettable portrait of a visionary from one of the greatest writers of our time. Leseprobe José Palacios, his oldest servant, found him floating naked with his eyes open in the purifying waters of his bath and thought he had drowned. He knew this was one of the many ways the General meditated, but the ecstasy in which he lay drifting seemed that of a man no longer of this world. He did not dare come closer but called to him in a hushed voice, complying with the order to awaken him before five so they could leave at dawn. The General came out of his trance and saw in the half-light the clear blue eyes, the curly squirrel-colored hair, the impassive dignity of the steward who attended him every day and who held in his hand a cup of the curative infusion of poppies and gum arabic. The General's hands lacked strength when he grasped the handles of the tub, but he rose up from the medicinal waters in a dolphinlike rush that was surprising in so wasted a body. "Let's go," he said, "as fast as we can. No one loves us here." José Palacios had heard him say this so many times and on so many different occasions that he still did not believe it was true, even though the pack animals were ready in the stables and the members of the official delegation were beginning to assemble. In any event, he helped him to dry and draped the square poncho from the uplands over his nake...