Gabriel García Márquez’s last novel stands in tribute to his defiance of dementia | Wendy Mitchell

The late Colombian author didn't want his final book published, but his sons' decision to do so is inspiring to writers like me

Shortly before he died nine years ago, the highly acclaimed Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez requested that his final novel, Until August, should not be published. However, last week his sons announced that the work would be released in March next year. The rights and wrongs of going against their father's wishes are complicated by the fact that at the time of writing this final novel, Marquez was living with dementia.

Perhaps Marquez, who won the Nobel prize in literature in 1982, compared the work with his earlier novels and found it lacking because of his dementia. Critics weren't too kind about the last book he did publish while he was alive and living with dementia, but they might have been unaware of his struggles. Perhaps that's why Marquez wanted this one to remain unpublished. Dementia strips away so much from you, that maybe the thought of another failure at his craft of writing was too much to bear.

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