Books: Bridge Over Cultures

A translator gives Latin writers a new home

In 1967 a novel called Cien Aos de Soledad was published in Buenos Aires and began winning international acclaim for a Colombian journalist named Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Yet nearly three years elapsed before One Hundred Years of Solitude made its way into English. The reason for the delay? Argentine Author Julio Cortazar, whose novel Rayuela had become a critical success in the U.S. as Hopscotch, offered Garcia Marquez a piece of advice based on his own happy experience: Get your book translated by Professor Gregory Rabassa of New York City. As it happened, Garcia Marquez had to wait a while; Rabassa...

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