Gabriel Garcia Marquez's seminal novel One Hundred Years of Solitude has topped the list of books that have most shaped world literature over the last 25 years, according to a survey of writers.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's seminal novel One Hundred Years of Solitude has topped the list of books that have most shaped world literature over the last 25 years, according to a survey of writers.
The survey was commissioned by the global literary journal Wasafiri (which means "cultural traveler" in Swahili) which celebrated its 25th anniversary on Friday. Indra Sinha, Amit Chaudhuri, Blake Morrison and 22 other authors were asked to pick the title that they thought had most influenced world writing over the past quarter-century.
Marquez's work, published in Spanish in 1967 and translated into English three years later, was the only book named more than once. It was chosen by three authors: Chika Unigwe, Sujata Bhatt and Nii Ayikwei Parkes.u00a0
Salman Rushdie also looms large on the list. Indian poet Tabish Khair named The Satanic Verses, while Ghanaian-Scots novelist Lesley Lokko chose Midnight's Children.u00a0
Britain-based Indian novelist Indra Sinha too said, "One has to consider Midnight's Children (1984), as its success opened doors for so many new writers", though his choice was Lolita for Vladimir Nabokov's "astonishing virtuoso performance, which has never been excelled". Among other names featuring on the list was VS Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas.
