Big Read: Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Explore the dilemma of magical realism in our Big Read discussion this month!

Better known for the major works of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, this novella is based on a real life incident in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s own wider family.  He utilises a journalistic and investigative style to convey the facts to the reader, using magical realism to highlight ordinary events into a strange and surreal landscape.

The assassins’ ritual repetition of their intentions fails to wholly explain or justify the murder and, in turn, the reader becomes complicit in their crime.

Led by Mary Burton

Big Read is FREE for BRLSI members and only £3 for visitors – it’s a friendly and informal book discussion group, so come and join us.

Here are five questions on the book to get you started, however feel free to bring your own thoughts!

1. What do you understand by the term “magical realism”.

2.  Can you think of more present day writers currently employing this technique

3. Do you feel the residents of the village are complicit in any way in the assassination

4. Is there anything to be said in mitigation for the killing

5. Do you regard this as a so called “honour” crime