One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Zero to Well-Read

Riot New Media Group, Inc.

Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.7 • 837 Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2026

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rebecca and Jeff explore the novel that made magical realism a global phenomenon. They talk about what magical realism is (and isn't), the rise and fall of the Buendía family, and the fictional town of Macondo as allegories for real-world history and political events, and why the book is so hard to summarize. Along the way, they offer tips for how to read One Hundred Years of Solitude without getting lost and reflect on why surrendering to its chaos is part of the experience. Subscribe to our free newsletter, and become a member for access to early, ad-free listening and bonus content. Follow Zero to Well-Read on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Email us: zerotowellread@bookriot.com Zero to Well-Read is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network. Discussed in this episode: The Buendía family tree from Wikipedia The Book Riot Podcast episode about Magical Realism This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of Zero to Well Red is sponsored by ThriftBooks.com.
0:05.2	I've got a couple of editions of 100 years of solitude that you can find on Thriftbooks.com.
0:10.2	The first one is the pretty standard one you can find.
0:12.5	It's a good edition.
0:13.3	It's the one that I was reading.
0:14.3	It's the one Rebecca's reading in this episode.
0:16.5	It's the 2006 Harper Perennial Edition.
0:20.9	Settettle cover.
0:21.9	You can get it for seven, eight bucks in used condition on ThriftBooks.com right now.
0:27.4	There's another one.
0:28.5	There's only a few copies available of it right now.
0:30.9	But if you want to get something that has a cool introduction, this is the coolest one I have found.
0:36.7	It is the Everyman's Library Edition. It's a
0:40.3	1995 printing, and it has an introduction by Carlos Fuentes, the great Mexican novelist.
0:47.2	There's only a handful available on thriftbooks.com right now. You can get for like $8 an acceptable
0:52.2	condition. It might have a little wear on it. But these are
0:55.0	pretty rare. You know, we're going on 30 years ago since this was issued. So run over to Thriftbooks.com right now and pick that up if you want. Not that many in English have an introduction that seem worth going out of your way for, but I think that's one. And if you're in the U.S. and spend over $15 on your whole order so you can get a couple books here. You get free shipping. And each purchase gets you
1:14.2	closer to a free book reward as part of their reading awards program. Thanks so much to Thriftbooks.com for making zero to well-read possible.
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