I'm Not Here to Give a Speech
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Available in English for the first time in the U.S., a collection of the speeches of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez.
Throughout his life, Gabriel García Márquez spoke publicly with the same passion and energy that marked his writing. Now the wisdom and compassion of these performances are available in English for the first time. I'm Not Here to Give a Speech records key events throughout the author's life, from a farewell to his classmates delivered when he was only seventeen to his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Written across a lifetime, these speeches chart the growth of a genius: each is a snapshot offering insights into the beliefs and ideas of a world- renowned storyteller. Preserving García Márquez's unmistakeable voice for future generations, I'm Not Here to Give a Speech is a must-have for anyone who ever fell in love with Macondo or cherished a battered copy of Love in the Time of Cholera.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Though the late Nobel laureate Garc a M rquez (1927 2014) professed discomfort with public speaking, as the title indicates, this collection demonstrates that he was still a powerful storyteller with the spoken as well as printed word. The talks are arranged chronologically, from a farewell address in praise of friendship he gave at age 17 in 1944 to his classmates at the National Secondary School for Boys in Zipaquir , Colombia, to a 2007 speech on writing One Hundred Years of Solitude to Real Academia Espa ola and the king and queen of Spain. In the latter, he marvels at the millions of readers the book has touched, not to boast but "to show that there are a number of human beings who have demonstrated with their habit of reading that their souls are open to be filled with messages in Spanish." Perhaps the most notable selection is his 1982 speech accepting the Nobel Prize, "The Solitude of Latin America," which counsels Europeans "with an enlightening spirit" to realize that expressing solidarity with Latin Americans' "dreams will not make us feel less alone" unless accompanied by concrete action. These talks, so eloquently rendered by Garc a M rquez's longtime translator Grossman, capture the novelist's passion, genius, and energetic way of telling a story with a clear moral.
