From the publisher: "From the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude comes a masterly evocation of an unrequited passion so strong that it binds two people's lives together for more than half a century. In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career, he whiles away the years in 622 affairs - yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he does so again. With humorous sagacity and consummate craft, Gabriel García Márquez traces an exceptional half-century of unrequited love. Though it seems never to be conveniently contained, love flows through the novel in many wonderful guises - joyful, melancholy, enriching, and ever surprising."

Originally published in El Espectador newspaper in 1955, this secondhand account of one sailor's survival brings Robinson Crusoe to mind. In February 1955, eight crew members disappeared after being washed overboard the Caldas, a Colombian ship. Ten days later, one man was found clinging to life on shore, and he later recounted his tale to reporter Gabriel García Márquez. (Yes, that García Márquez!) At the time, the story caused quite a stir, as the ship was both ill-suited for its mission and loaded with contraband. The government wanted to bury the story, putting the journalists in a precarious position. At around 100 pages, this short book combines political intrigue with a remarkable survival story.