Mr. García Márquez, who died in his Mexico City home at age 87 on Thursday after being hospitalized for infections, was best known for his 1967 masterpiece, “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” which recounted the travails of the abundant and obsessive Buendía clan.
Translated into dozens of languages and selling 30 million copies, the book is considered literature’s exemplar of magical realism, generating countless imitations and inspiring a generation of writers in Latin America and beyond.
Though Mr. García Márquez didn’t invent the technique, he became literature’s leading exponent of the style, which balances dreamlike, fantastical vignettes with sharply focused realism, all of it solemnly delivered through an eccentric cast of whimsical characters. Readers of his books have delighted in stories populated with tin-pot dictators, cows that swim, self-obsessed characters that don’t age and brokenhearted suitors.
The news triggered an outpouring of grief from Colombians, who venerate Mr. García Márquez and see his literature as reflecting the soul of their country. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos tweeted: “One-thousand years of solitude and sadness for the death of the greatest Colombian of all time!”