Gabriel Garcia Marquez Mulling Over Four Different Versions of His New Book

Posted on December 10, 2008

There has been some concern that 82 year old Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez would never write another book. But that concern was allayed when a close friend announced that Marquez is working on a new book.

Garcia Marquez's next book will be a love story, though his friend and fellow writer Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza said that the author was struggling to come up with a version that he was happy with. "He has four versions of it," Apuleyo said. "He told me that he was now trying to get the best from each of them."
Apuleyo, who co-wrote a book of conversations with García Marquez called The Smell of the Guava Tree in 1982, said the Nobel prizewinner had become hugely self-critical and demanding of himself. Two years ago, Garcia Marquez said: "I've stopped writing ... 2005 was the first year in my life that I didn't write a line."
He admitted, though, that his problem was one of enthusiasm rather than inspiration. "With all the practice I've got, I'd have no problems writing a new novel," he explained. "But people notice if you haven't put your heart into it." Apuleyo said Garcia Marquez described his year without writing as "a sabbatical", during which he had devoted his time to reading.

We're glad that he's still writing. The Guardian contacted his agent who said there was no publication date scheduled. It sounds like his agent hasn't seen a manuscript yet. Now that the existence of the four manuscripts has been revealed, we do hope he has proper security measures in place. Look what happened to Stephenie Meyer when an unfinished manuscript was leaked online: she was so upset she stopped writing completely.