Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez

Synopsis

A man returns to the town where a baffling murder took place twenty-seven years earlier, determined to get to the bottom of the story. Just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, everyone agrees, Bayardo San Roman returned his bride in disgrace to her parents. Her distraught family forced her to name her first lover; and her twin brothers announced their intention to murder Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister.

Yet if everyone knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to try and stop it? The more that is learned, the less is understood, and as the story races to its inexplicable conclusion, an entire society–not just a pair of murderers—is put on trial.

Review

A short 120 page book that took me one month and three days to read. I think this was the perfect introduction to Gabriel García Márquez. 

Taking so long to read this book was not because it was particularly hard to absorb, but rather a combination of life outside of my books and the fact that it just felt natural to take my time. 

This book is a fictional account of a murder that took hold of a small town. The man who collected all facts and stories would have spent a long time digging. 

Now, cut to when his account has been completed, you read this and it feels like a dream. It’s very personal and it paints a portrait of the town affected in its entirety. Almost like an old man recalling the murder to a younger audience who was not there to witness.

This novel conveys the complexity of any decision but also introduces the question of fate. Everything was too perfect of a coincidence to have happened coincidentally. Did the murderers really decide to go through with their crime? Or did fate already decide for them. “O, I am a fortune’s fool!” as Romeo would say. 

By the end of this novel my heart is sore in a Shakespearean way. Right from the beginning you know who was killed and who killed them, but just like Romeo and Juliet, you desperately hope that this time will be different.

Márquez unfolds this chronicle in a gripping and beautiful way. The writing was perfect and the characters were hauntingly real. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

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