One Hundred Years of Solitude

By: Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa - translator

Narrated by: John Lee

Includes a bonus PDF with a character chart!

One of the twentieth century’s enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.

The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth—these universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©1964 Gabriel García Márquez (P)2013 Blackstone Audio

Amazingly entertaining work

Douglas Adams meets the Addams Family....WOW! Garcia Marquez was a literary genius and his Nobel Prize was well deserved. John Lee's reading was very well done and his inflections made me laugh out loud numerous times. I have to disagree with those reviewers who found it difficult to keep the characters straight without a chart of the family tree. The time span covered by the book is roughly 100 years, and obviously there will be a number of characters from different generations. I found the theme of variations on the same few names used over and over, confusing even the family members themselves, to be hysterical. Don't try to keep the genealogy straight in your head.....there won't be a test. Just listen and enjoy!

Stunning, delirious

A writhing labyrinth, both familiar and impossible. A delirious fugue of unreasonable ferocity and innocence. A glittering mosaic of unrelenting willfulness and riotously ordinary destinies.

Just a great book

I have read this book 3-4 times. Each time I read it, I learned something new. Having someone read it to me just is amazing. Love the way narrator danced his voice in almost a sing song way at times because this is what the story is like. Bravo. Just love it.

Still confused

I am not sure what this book was about. But it had some fantastical parts

J. Peterman from Seinfeld

The narrator's performance of this book reminds me of J. Peterman's stories from Seinfeld.

A quality book, but very tiring to read.

Although I realize the quality and depth of this book, I found it extremely tiring and monotonous to read. But not monotonous in the sense that nothing is going on but in the sense that there is constantly something going on. So, as you read, you get accustomed to relentless scandals, incest, battles, affairs, and general drama which provide a fast but continuous pace in the plot and therefore make it monotonous. And not to mention all the characters - no wonder the book comes with a family tree.

Nevertheless, the book is filled with hidden meanings as well as many other qualities and should probably be read several times to be grasped fully. But it just wasn't the right book for me at this point in time.

High Expectations

Still not what I expected. Looking forward to listening again and really carving out an actual opinion

100 years of circles

Ok, but aimless.... Interesting, but not worth your time. You're better off taking a different journey.

Spellbinding

I loved this audiobook and the narration of it. Now, this isn’t my first time reading it so I can’t say that it is good for a first experience. As a re-read however, I found it delightful, utterly spellbinding, and reminded me of a) why I love this book so much and b) that literature is FUN! In all the tragedy and events ”One hundred...” is a fun experience because it is playful and magical and is populated by all this unforgettable characters!

Oh, for first time readers/listeners (or anyone needing a reminder) there is a pdf file with the Buendia family tree that comes with this audiobook which I think is great, reminders are helpful especially towards the end!

Loved it

Struggled to read from ch 14-19 because it kept dragging on and one keeps forgetting the characters, oh so many characters. Nonetheless, A masterpiece.