The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor

The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor (original Spanish-language title: Relato de un náufrago) is a work of non-fiction by Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez.

Related Topics:
Spanish-language - Non-fiction - Colombia - Gabriel García Márquez

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It was originally published in as a series of newspaper articles in 1955, turned into a book in 1970, and translated into English by Randolf Hogan in 1986.

Related Topics:
1955 - 1970 - English - Randolf Hogan - 1986

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The book's theme is the possible, but not necessary, moral reversion to a primitive, instinctual existence in the face of a sea catastrophe and consequent shipwreck and solitude. This theme had been explored previously in fiction by Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) and Voltaire (Candide), and more recently by William Golding (Lord of the Flies and Pincher Martin), Umberto Eco (The Island of the Day Before), J.M. Coetzee (Foe), José Saramago (The Stone Raft and The Tale of the Unknown Island). A later non-fiction treatment of a similar theme can be found in The Last Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by Ron Hall and Nicolas Tomalin.

Related Topics:
Shipwreck - Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe - Voltaire - Candide - William Golding - Lord of the Flies - Pincher Martin - Umberto Eco - The Island of the Day Before - J.M. Coetzee - Foe - José Saramago - The Stone Raft - The Tale of the Unknown Island - Donald Crowhurst

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Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez began his literary career as a newspaper writer. In 1955, he wrote a series of newspaper stories about a shipwrecked sailor who nearly died on account of negligence by the Colombian Navy; several of his colleagues drowned shortly before arriving at the port of Cartagena de Indias. This made it unsafe for him to remain in Colombia for a time, so he worked for several years as a foreign correspondent.

Related Topics:
Nobel laureate - 1955 - Colombian Navy - Cartagena de Indias - Foreign correspondent

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