The General in his Labyrinth

Nov 12, 2025 8:21 AM

Author:Gabriel Garcia Marquez

With the style and eloquent language that earned him the Nobel prize for literature, Marquez weaves a stunning story of glory and despair. Both real history and Marquez' imagination let us enter the world of Simon Bolivar, Liberator of South America, in all his humanity - good and evil. Bolivar drove the Spanish out of South America, dealt with treachery from his own compatriots. Once hailed as a hero, he is now scorned and reviled, and fighting his own demons, he refuses to die quietly. We are given a glimpse of the genius and foibles of the man behind the legend, as we accompany him on his last journey, accompanied only by the loyal remants of his once great army.

Reviews

A gift to humanity

—— Giuseppe Verdi

An important book... Extraordinary

—— Independent on Sunday

Probably the best book on the [Booker] longlist, the one that will last... Every word counts. Every sentence lives

—— Evening Standard

The best novel I've read this year, a book so bold and so clever that one wants to call it something other than a novel, to take it out of that commonplace genre

—— Frank Kermode , Times Literary Supplement

A readable and engaging book. Demanding, playful, provocative...hugely enlightening and rewarding

—— Sunday Times

Mr Greens' extraordinary power of plot-making, of suspense and of narration...moves continuously both in time and space and in emotion

—— The Times

His style is spare, that's what is so beautiful. His novels are genuine romans philosophies - novels illustrating ideas

—— Piers Paul Read

In a class by himself...the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man’s consciousness and anxiety

—— William Golding

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