Innocent Erendira and Other Stories

Innocent Erendira And Other Stories is a compilation of some of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s most famous stories. The book contains eleven short stories and one novella, The Incredible And Sad Tale Of Innocent Erendira And Her Soulless Grandmother. This book is a collection of some of Garcia’s earlier works, which were mainly written before his book One Hundred Years Of Solitude brought him recognition and made him famous in the literary world.

The Incredible And Sad Tale Of Innocent Erendira And Her Soulless Grandmother is easily the most famous work in this book. It narrates the story of a young girl named Erendira, who is forced to live with her grandmother when she unknowingly sets fire to her grandmother’s house. She is then forced to repay her debt by prostituting herself. After many years, one of her clients falls in love with her and decides to help her escape. The two of them formulate a plan and Erendira decides to kill her grandmother. Her lover though, is iffy about killing her grandmother and he eventually stabs her while she is asleep. Erendira then runs off into the night leaving her lover alone with her dead grandmother. The novella captures a whole range of emotions brought to the fore by Marquez’s brilliant writing style.

The Innocent Erendira And Other Stories is a wonderful compilation of stories written by the Colombian writer and is a good way of initiating someone to his writing style. The book was published by Penguin India as new edition in 2000 and is available in paperback.