Gabo & Mercedes: A farewell

An intimate, honest, and revealing account of the final days of one of the greatest authors in world literature, Gabriel García Márquez, and his wife and inspiring muse, Mercedes Barcha, written by the couple's eldest son, Rodrigo García.

In 2014, Gabriel García Márquez, one of the world's most beloved Spanish-language writers and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was already aging and ill when he caught a cold. "We're not getting out of this one," Mercedes Barcha, his wife of over fifty years, told Rodrigo, their eldest son.

To try to make sense of the difficult period that lay ahead for the family, Rodrigo began to put into words details of those days that would forever remain in his memory. The result is a powerful and moving chronicle of the final moments of the master of Latin American magical realism and his inspiring muse, who passed away six years after losing her beloved Gabo, written with revealing detail and exceptional honesty by the couple's eldest son.

With talent, respect, and delicacy, Rodrigo García paints a moving and revealing portrait of a family grieving the loss of a loved one, transforming one of the most brilliant minds in international literature into a memorable protagonist. In a photo booklet, he recalls his father's glory days as a writer, memorable moments from his marriage to Mercedes, and family life.

Gabo and Mercedes: A Farewell is Rodrigo García's emotional farewell to his mother, a charismatic woman who greatly influenced García Márquez's work, and a tribute to one of the greatest authors of the 20th century, his father, our eternal Gabo.

"What Rodrigo brings in this book is the revelation of how Gabo and Mercedes left. These are scenes I knew or intuited, and which he portrays with affection and warm memory. It was like reliving the long conversations with Gabo, his way of seeing life and the world, his defense—and Mercedes'—against the evils of fame and harassment, and staying on the surface of reality." - Eric Nepomuceno

“A beautiful farewell to two extraordinary people, who enchanted and moved me.” - Salman Rushdie