Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Marquez (“LTOC”) is the best true love story I’ve ever read. I recommend it for everyone interested in romances and also for all the true love believers. It is just amazing and it is a classic magical realist book (of course, as it is written by the genius Gabriel García Marquez). Magic realism is my favorite literary genre and I’d like to show you more information about it.

This literary genre was popularized by Latin American writers in the 1950s. The main characteristic of magic realism is the existence of fantasy elements in the real world. Unlike in fantasy novels, the magical events are presented as ordinary occurrences and the reader accepts the marvelous as normal and common. For example, in LTOC Fermina senses the flesh and blood presence of her dead husband, but then she goes about her day as normally as possible.

The story takes place in Cartagena, Colombia, and it tells the love story of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love at first sight, but Fermina’s father didn’t accept their relationship and she agrees to marry Dr. Juvenal Urbino, her father’s choice. However, things change after the doctor’s death…