"One Hundred Years of Solitude" (1967) by Gabriel García Márquez

What do we know about "One Hundred Years of Solitude"? Let's list the obvious: it is Márquez's magnum opus, an epic story of the seven generations of the Buendía family and of the establishment and rise and fall of the fictional Colombian city Macondo; there is the famous "magical realism" bending the real and surreal; the trademark humour and sarcasm; lots of incest; and of course, the theme of solitude. Who suffers from solitude? Well, everybody, you can't escape it. It is written in the stars, or in the cards, or... I won't spoil the book for you. One can be the person who brings utopia and order to everybody, but when one declines, in health or in power otherwise, one is left to rot in solitude. One can, of course, choose to voluntarily pursue solitude - in times of despair, regrets, remorse, obsession or madness. Unpopular people are left in solitude. Popular people so perfect to the point of being untouchable are left in solitude. Well-endowed children die in the hands of men (boys) - in solitude. Neglected children die in the hands of nature - in solitude. It does not matter what names you are given, it does not matter what (political or religious) beliefs you have, it does not matter whether you die for common good or ascend to the heavens without even dying, as long as one lives, fundamentally, one lives and leaves in solitude. It is a somewhat Buddhist worldview. These microcosmic stories of solitude are considered to represent the fate of an entire continent. It is very easy to over-interpret the work. The content is rich, the language is dense and it takes a lot of effort to parse 400 pages of solid text (10 pt font, single line spacing), but when you close the back cover at the end, you take a deep breath, then realise we are all tiny ants in the history of humanity. It is comparatively dry and emotionally detached against "Love in the Time of Cholera", but it is one of those magnificent human achievements that, in reverence, makes you feel irrelevant as a person.