Gabriel García Márquez, the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of the Cholera, has died in Mexico City at the age of 87.

A number of obituaries have already been posted on the web, including these from the BBC and The Guardian.

I am ashamed to say I have not read One Hundred Years of Solitude, I really do not know why. I have reserved it at the library. What am to expect from it? Someone help!

I have to admit that I'm also utterly unacquainted with his work, so I can't really say what we can expect from him.

I picked up a copy of "Love in the Time of the Cholera" in a charity shop the other day, but it's just one of a great many books that I've bought and have still to read. Since it's a German translation, I'll probably concentrate fairly hard on the text when I get round to it.

I suspect that the reason why I've ignored Latin American literature generally is the rumours I hear about the "magical realism" or mixture of the everyday and the fantastic that allegedly runs through it. I've always been rather averse to fantasy works, but I can see that I shouldn't judge what I haven't read simply because of its reputed content; so I'll try to start on García Márquez soon.

I've read "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "Love in the Time of Cholera" and a more recent (1994) novella "Of Love and Other Demons" - and thoroughly recommend all of them. The 'magic realism' is pretty seamless overall and doesn't grate or get in the way of reading the books.

Coincidentally the last book I read is also within that South American theme of magic realism - "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by the US-Dominican Republic author Junot Díaz (won the Pulitzer a few years back). The heavy use of DR Spanish argot gets a little bit in the way, but other than that I'd thoroughly recommend it after (or before, or during(!)) dipping into Garcia Marquez. It's an incredibly moving and well-written novel.

Thanks. Could you count Isabelle Allende in the "magical realism" genre? I suppose you could, and I have read most of her work. No that didn't interfere with enjoying the books.