From solitude to masterpieces

Dive into these riveting reads if you loved 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'

SLOUGH, ENGLAND:

Love it or loathe it, Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude is here to stay. A muti-generational saga of Columbian trauma? Replete with cockfights, massacres, magic and an uncountable number of Aurelianos? Either you will declare your undying love for this Columbian literary masterpiece or announce you would rather walk on hot flaming coal than read another word about an Aureliano ever again.

An acquired taste

The hot flaming coal category of reader listed above would politely observe that One Hundred Years of Solitude is an acquired taste, although this reader would be outnumbered by Márquez's fan club by a considerable margin. The man reportedly spent eighteen months ignoring his family so he could pen down his beloved book in peace. Since being published in 1967, One Hundred Years of Solitude has been translated into 46 languages from the original Spanish and sold more than 50 million copies. In other words, a taste for One Hundred Years of Solitude is one that has been eagerly acquired by generations of devoted readers – and also a Netflix production team and Pakistan's very own Zeenat Hisam. The latter, in fact, has been so enamoured by Márquez's magnum opus that she has translated the entire novel so that Urdu readers can also feel the love.

Where to go next

Perhaps, like Hisam, you picked up One Hundred Years of Solitude out of idle curiosity and were unable to put it down until you reached the final definitive doom of the Buendía clan. Or perhaps, like the hapless I-would-rather-walk-on-hot-coal reader, the book was an unwanted present that you remained committed to with gritted teeth out of a sense of obligation. Whichever side of the spectrum you land on, the one thing that is incontestably true is that you have proved your mettle if this marathon of a novel features in your list of '100 books to read before I die'. Or to put it another way, if you survived One Hundred Years of Solitude, you have the capacity to digest literary works that are meatier than whatever is being churned out by Emily Henry or Colleen Hoover. If you want to dive deep into more tales ripe with mystery, intrigue, substance and a gruelling coming-of-age element (albeit perhaps with fewer themes of solitude and massacre), here are two alternatives for you to explore. If, of course, they already have a home on your bookshelf, no harm will ever come by revisiting the worlds in their hallowed pages.

'The Shadow of the Wind'

Yet another literary masterpiece that was originally written in Spanish, The Shadow of the Wind (2001) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is the ideal present for any book lover. The novel opens with 10-year-old Daniel Sempere being led down a secret underground labyrinthine library that houses rare and banned books (could a book lover reader hope for a better beginning?). Although he cannot put his finger on why, Daniel gravitates to a book called The Shadow of the Wind, and over the intervening years, becomes obsessed with finding the author. The obsession leads him down a Shadow of the Wind rabbit hole, where he learns that the author and every other copy of the book has mysteriously vanished. To his consternation, Daniel learns that someone is hell-bent on destroying his precious copy of the book as well, which begs the inevitable question: how far would you go to protect the book you loved most in the world?

Set in post-World War II 1940s Barcelona, the novel features everything you could want when you want to ignore your real-world obligations: a library of forgotten books, unrequited love, madness, secrets, and – to complete the full set – a good dose of juicy murder. A blueprint of a coming-of-age tale, The Shadow of the Wind will send you spiralling down into a story within a story. Despite being published in the twenty-first century, Zafón's on-point depiction of a post-war twentieth-century Spain will have you convinced you, too, are walking along with Daniel on the cobbled streets of Barcelona. As one final present, Lucia Grave's exquisite translation of Zafón's prose will fool you into forgetting that you are not, in fact, reading this book in the language it was originally published in.

'The Fountainhead'

If you want to sort out the wheat from the chaff amongst your reader friends, give them The Fountainhead as a litmus test. A tentative peruse into the opening chapter may repel you from dipping any further. However, if you persevere and make it to the end of Howard Roark's magnificent journey from college dropout to architect extraordinaire, you will have echoes of his final words embedded in your memory for as long as your memory remains functional.

The book opens with our hero Roark being unceremoniously kicked out of university for refusing to buck the trend as a budding architect. Unperturbed, the patient Roark continues to do whatever he can to build in his own way. He scorns conformity as if the very concept is worse than disease-ridden livestock. Roark strives to teach by example that nothing is more noble than pursuing a goal you have set for yourself. He is thwarted at nearly every turn by a society that values the path well-beaten. However, through her hero's eyes, Rand strives to show us what makes an ideal individual. At the crux of Rand's landmark novel lies the belief that to be selfish is to be noble.

"No creator was prompted by a desire to serve his brothers, for his brothers rejected the gift he offered and that gift destroyed the slothful routine of their lives. His truth was his only motive," says Roark in a pivotal moment. "A symphony, a book, an engine, a philosophy, an aeroplane or a building – that was his goal and his life. Not those who heard, read, operated, believed, flew or inhabited the thing he had created. The creation, not its users. The creation, not the benefits others derived from it. The creation which gave form to his truth. He held his truth above all things and against all men."

Not for the faint-hearted, The Fountainhead tackles themes of individualism, capitalism, and objectivism. Do not let any of these 'isms' put you off. Join Howard Roark on his impossible journey, and if you have an ounce of creativity somewhere inside you, Rand's words will stay with you for a lifetime.