Summary

This post is more a discussion than a review. Because Gabriel Garcia Marquez needs no review, only appreciation.

A man is wronged. 

On the morning after the marriage between Bayardo and Angela, Santiago Nassar is murdered. The whole town knows about the murder before it happens, including where it’s going to happen and how. But no one can save Santiago.

The reason for the murder being Angela on the night of the marriage tells Bayardo that she isn’t a virgin and Santiago is responsible. No one bothers talking to Santiago or reasoning as to why when and how he met Angela and he is brutally murdered in broad daylight with multiple witnesses outside the door of his house. 

We are left with questions of the man’s innocence, because just the night before he took part in the marriage ceremony, was excited about meeting the Bishop the next day and having breakfast with his friend’s sister. The friend who is narrating this story.

The main theme of the story was how the death of Santiago was foreseen by almost everyone in the village and yet no one could prevent it. Not his friend, not his mother, no one. And this twisted story is written in a language so simple and yet so compelling that I finished the story in one sitting. 

I was shocked by the author’s implication that Santiago might be an innocent after all and as to why Angela mentioned his name that night remains to be pondered upon. 

Another fact that had me thinking was again the patriarchal system. A man could be promiscuous but the bride has to be a virgin and nobody would even bother to ask her if she wanted to marry the particular man. Her mother beat her black and blue for returning home on her wedding night. 

I read this book for Uncorked Reading  Challenge 2021.

Prompt – a book translated from Spanish.