The internationally acclaimed novel “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez has arrived in China Monday.
The second most internationally acclaimed novel by the Colombian writer has been translated and formally published for the first time in Mandarin Chinese, and was presented in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the Beijing capital.
The Spanish teacher Yang Ling was in charge of officially translating the novel, after years of it being sold illegally throughout the country.
“It’s a book that every person can find their own feeling of ‘first love’ and in that Garcia Marquez appears as a real man, of flesh and bone, and we feel profoundly what he is feeling,” said Yang in comment of the celebrated book which was his first Latin American novel translation.
The Chinese editorial had sold over a million legal copies of Garcia Marquez’ most acclaimed “100 Years of Solitude” after just one year of publishing it in 2011. The market has been circulating illegal versions of the Nobel prize winner’s work for years, but after the success of the last novel, more formal translations have begun to take place.
“Before [Garcia Marquez’] works were not published in a formal manner, for this we believe that we have the responsibility to publish them to contribute to the improvement of the literature that exists in China and so that Chinese readers can access the work of Garcia Marquez,” said a representative of the editorial that published the novel.
“Love in the Time of Cholera” will be sold in China for approximately $6, while the pirated version is rarely sold for under $3, leaving the Chinese excited about the possibility of purchasing the novel in a legitimate manner without having to pay an exorbitant amount.