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Until August
- Narrated by: Cristobal Pera, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Rodrigo Garcia
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
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Until August
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
THE EXTRAORDINARY LOST NOVEL FROM THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA AND ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE
Sitting alone, overlooking the still and blue lagoon, Ana Magdalena Bach surveys the men of the hotel bar. She is happily married and has no reason to escape the world she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels here to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.
Amid sultry days and tropical downpours, lotharios and conmen, Ana journeys further each year into the hinterland of her desire, and the fear that sits quietly at her heart.
Constantly surprising and wonderfully sensual, Until August is a profound meditation on freedom, regret, and the mysteries of love, from one of the greatest writers the world has ever known.
Critic reviews
‘Few writers can be said to have written books that have changed the whole course of literature. Gabriel García Márquez did just that’ Guardian
‘One of the greatest visionary writers – and one of my favourites from the time I was young’ Barack Obama
‘No writer since Dickens was so widely read, and so deeply loved, as Gabriel García Márquez’ Salman Rushdie
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What listeners say about Until August
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mrs
- 29-03-24
Until August — the end of an era, but there’s still so much magic
I have been a fan of Gabriel García Márquez, though I came to his work in my early twenties. I think that that is an excellent place to read him. His mind-altering stories have catapulted me into Latin America, and walking so intimately along the streets of Macondo in One Hundred Years of Solitude has always been a pleasure.
This last book, written before his death in 2014, is Márquez’s truest final work. Written with compassion and erudition, full of fun and intense emotion. It is a perfect ending to a wonderfully fruitful career as one of the world’s best loved writers. The preface states that it is a book not without flaws. I agree. But this novella is as close to perfect as it can be the only criticism I have is that there is not enough. I would have loved each chapter to be a novella in itself, as per Gabo’s original intention. But we got this wonderful novella.
I truly felt for Anna Magdalena Bach, and wanted her to be at peace with herself. She is a complex woman and her intentions and her desires every time she comes to the island override her, and this has impacts on her life away from there. There is a great deal of soul-searching and a great deal of guilt. And I would say this is an excellent and compelling study of guilt and why we are driven to do things we normally wouldn’t do. Again, it is written without judgement, but with compassion and care.
I’d say this is a success as a story, and it pains me to read that Gabo thought it ought to be destroyed. If it had, we would not have received this gem of a book. Though it isn’t actually a novel - it is a novella of about 27,000 words (I wish it was a novel!) - it is still a vibrant work of writing that shows that, even as he battled his own illnesses and dementia, he had on the pen the same firm grip that awarded him the Nobel Prize.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Emma S
- 29-04-24
Narrator disappointing
I found the narration of this book rather stilted and hesitant in places. The narrator stumbled over some words and I felt there was very little expression in the reading. I didn’t enjoy the story as much as I would have done with a different narrator. Rather disappointing as I would have expected a better choice of narrator from Penguin. I understand the decision to have a Spanish narrator, but in this case the listener experience was not enhanced by it.
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