Unseen posthumous novel by Gabriel García Márquez published 10 years after his death

On Wednesday, Penguin Random House published the long-awaited unseen posthumous novel ‘En agosto nos vemos’ by the late Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of his death.

The English version, ‘Until August’ will be released on March 10. 

The novel was recovered thanks to the original script left by the writer, from which a definitive version was created, although the family of the Nobel Prize-winning author made the point that “nothing has been added” during a press event for the release of the book. 

The novel explores femininity, sexuality, and desire through the female protagonist, Ana Magdalena Bach, who is happily married but unfaithful with various men when she returns every summer to the island where her mother is buried.

Although Gonzalo García Barcha and Rodrigo García Barcha, the late author’s grown children, admit that the writer didn’t want to publish the novel, they believe García Márquez had “lost the ability to judge it.”   

The writer had begun working on the book long before his death, his sons explained, and according to them, the writer would often put forward different ideas.

In the final years of his life, however, García Márquez left instructions, stating that the book was no good and should be discarded.

Initially, the manuscript was kept at the Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research center and archive at the University of Texas, and, after a few years, scholars gained access to it.

“We were curious to reread it and we realized it was much better than we remembered,” the sons explained, adding that from that moment on, they decided to publish the novel, despite their father’s reluctance. 

“He destroyed all the books he didn’t finish, but with this one, he didn’t,” they said. “There was probably something in it that he thought was indecipherable because it’s true that it wasn’t as polished as the rest of his work.” 

But despite this, the sons and García Márquez’ editor agreed that the book was finished and that it would have been published at some point. 

“It has many of his characteristics: precise prose, human knowledge, descriptions, and a female protagonist, which is rare,” added the sons.  

According to the sons, the book is “more modern” than some of his previous work offering it a feminist vision, which was also present in the writer’s own life. 

“He was surrounded by women with strong personalities, and he admired many more such as Virginia Woolf and Mercè Rodoreda,” they said.

They hope that when the book comes out, readers will help judge whether the book should have been published or not. “All of his works are available to the public, and there will be no mysterious book left in the archive,” they said.

The book will have an initial print run of 250,000 copies and will be available worldwide from Wednesday, March 6.