Gabriel García Márquez's sons publish his final novel a decade after his death

It has been a decade since famous novelist Gabriel García Márquez passed away but his final novel is hitting now. The author would have been against the idea of the release, but his sons have decided to release the noveltitled Until August.

When the Nobel Prize–winning writer breathed his last in 2014, he was working on his book Until August. Márquez battled dementia in the years before his death and attempted at least five versions of the story but eventually decided to terminate the project completely.

“He told me directly that the novel had to be destroyed,” his son Gonzalo García Barcha said in a new interview with The New York Times. But along with his elder brother, Rodrigo García, he resolved to ignore their father’s request and publish his last work.

The late author's son revealed that Márquez was working intensely on the manuscript of Until August and even sent a draft to his literary agent. However, due to his dementia, he decided against publishing the book.

“Gabo lost the ability to judge the book,” Rodrigo told the Times. “He was no longer able to even follow the plot, probably.” He added that, upon revisiting the novel themselves, they found that “it was much better than we remembered.”

While the brothers are aware that their action may be termed as “greedy",they feel the novel will be a valuable addition to their father’s body of work, marking his first novel centred on a female protagonist.

Gabriel García Márquez's last novel Until August

The novel will narrate the intimate tale of Ana Magdalena Bach, a woman in her late 40s who travels to a Caribbean island every August to visit her mother’s grave. The journey serves as a phase of self-fulfilment each time and the visits allow her brief liberation from her husband and family, leading her to begin a series of illicit affairs.

Márquez was a Colombia-born author and journalist and affectionately known as Gabo. He is considered one of the most important writers of the 20th century. He published six novels, including the acclaimed classic One Hundred Years of Solitude, and seven non-fiction books, as well as numerous novellas and short story collections.Until August hits shelves on March 12.