Reading 2
The 5 Best Colombian Novelists
Evelio Rosero
One of the most celebrated Colombian writers of
the late 20th century; Rosero’s works engage with Colombia’s tumultuous and
violent political history, bringing to life the violence and fear that once
threatened to engulf the country. He has been awarded various prizes for his
fiction, including the National Literature Prize of Colombia.
Laura Restrepo
Restrepo has been acclaimed one of the best
South American writers since the days of the Latin American Boom, but as with
other contemporary novelists she has rejected the Magic Realism which characterized
that movement. She utilizes the conventions of reportage and detective fiction
to create vivid depictions of the effects that violence can have on a society
and on individuals.
Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Vasquez is another contemporary
Colombian novelist who prefers to engage with the current affairs of the
country and the realities of urban life than the largely rural and romantic
genre of Magic Realism. His works are thrillers which owe more to Joseph Conrad
and Philip Roth than to García Márquez.
Jorge Isaacs
A politician and soldier, Isaacs’ literary
career was short but highly significant. He only published one novel, Maria,
which was released in 1867, but it came to be regarded as the pinnacle of the
Latin American Romantic Movement which was at that time sweeping the
subcontinent. It is still considered one of the most important works of 19th
century Spanish American Literature and it offers a perspective on the nascent
Colombian society of that time.
Gabriel García Márquez
The most celebrated of all Colombian novelists,
García Márquez has achieved a level of worldwide fame and popularity which few
contemporary novelists can match. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1982 and is considered the writer who kick started the Latin
American Literature Boom in the late 1960s with the publication of his Magic
Realist novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Storey, T. The 5 Best
Colombian Novelists. Extraído el 2 de Septiembre,
2013 de http://theculturetrip.com/south-america/colombia/articles/the-5-best-colombian-novelists/