The vivid prose of Gabriel Garcia Marquez described a world as exotic as a Latin American carnival. His backdrop was the poverty-stricken, and often violent world of his Colombian home where democracy never really found roots. His stories wove imaginary magical elements into real life and were often set in a fictional village called Macondo.
A left-winger by conviction he was not slow to criticise the Colombian government and spent a great part of his life in exile. Continue reading the main story "Start Quote There is not a single line in all my work that does not have a basis in reality'
Gabriel Garcia Marquez Marquez was born in the town of Aracataca, Colombia on 6 March 1928 although his father, a pharmacist, always insisted it was 1927. His parents moved away shortly after he was born and the young Marquez was left in the care of his maternal grandparents.