Colombia

Living to Tell the Tale (Vivir para Contarla), by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (2003). The first of three volumes of the Nobel laureate's memoirs begins in his hometown of Aracataca in northern Colombia. In his youth, Marquez travels the country's main waterway, the Magdalena River, and begins a journalism career, covering important historical events such as Bogota's 1948 riots. But one also sees the beginnings of a novelist, in the author's vivid memories of Aracataca. Readers of his magical novel One Hundred Years of Solitude may recognize the fictional town of Macondo.