Gabriel García Márquez, Nobel Prize in Literature winner in 1982 and author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude," explores the solitude of power in his work "Autumn of the Patriarch."

"Over the weekend, vultures entered the presidential palace, eating the nets on the balcony doors, and their flapping disturbed the stagnant time within."

As the citizens of an anonymous Caribbean country wander through dusty corridors in search of their tyrannical leader, they cannot comprehend that the weak and faded man lying dead on the floor can only be the self-proclaimed General Commander of the Universe. Their arrogant and maniacally violent leader, known for serving traitors to his guests and drowning young men in the sea, surely cannot die a humiliating mortal death?

Following the demands of a man whose egocentric excesses hide the solitude of isolation and whose lies have become so embedded as to be indistinguishable from the truth, Márquez has created a fictional portrait of despotism suffused with an air of reality.

"He delights with his eccentric humanity and black humor and impresses with his absolute originality" - Vogue

"Perfectly captures the moral decay and political paralysis surrounding a society awaiting the death of a long-standing dictator" - Guardian

"Márquez writes in this lyrical, magical language that no one else can" - Salman Rushdie

Pages: 240, Dimensions: 13x13cm