A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes

The son of one of the greatest writers of our timeNobel Prize winner and internationally best-selling icon Gabriel Garca Mrquezremembers his beloved father and mother in this tender memoir about love and loss. It enthralled and moved me. Salman Rushdie In March 2014, Gabriel Garca Mrquez, one of the most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century, came down with a cold. The woman who had been beside him for more than fifty years, his wife Mercedes Barcha, was not hopeful; her husband, affectionately known as Gabo, was then nearly 87 and battling dementia. I don't think we'll get out of this one, she told their son Rodrigo. Hearing his mothers words, Rodrigo wondered, Is this how the end begins? To make sense of events as they unfolded, he began to write the story of Garca Mrquezs final days. The result is this intimate and honest account that not only contemplates his fathers mortality but reveals his remarkable humanity. Both an illuminating memoir and a heartbreaking work of reportage, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes transforms this towering genius from literary creator to protagonist, and paints a rich and revelatory portrait of a family coping with loss. At its centre is a man at his most vulnerable, whose wry humour shines even as his lucidity wanes. Gabo savours affection and attention from those in his orbit, but wrestles with what he will loseand what is already lost. Throughout his final journey is the charismatic Mercedes, his constant companion and the creative muse who was one of the foremost influences on Gabos life and his art. Bittersweet and insightful, surprising and powerful, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes celebrates the formidable legacy of Rodrigos parents, offering an unprecedented look at the private family life of a literary giant. It is at once a gift to Gabriel Garca Mrquezs readers worldwide, and a grand tribute from a writer who knew him well.