For those who personally knew Gabriel Garcia Márquez, he was never an academic figure, still less an unapproachable icon. Much as the Latin American writer needed solitude to create his fictional worlds, he also needed a wide circle of family and friends. Taking the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude as the pivotal event in his life, this oral history lets Márquez's siblings comment on his early years as "Gabito" from provincial Colombia, then creates a portrait of the world-renowned Nobel Laureate, as recalled by writers Tomás Eloy Martinez, Edmundo Paz Soldán, and William and Rose Styron; legendary Spanish agent Carmen Balcells; and translator Gregory Rabassa.