In Evil Hour: An Excerpt from the Novel

In Summer 1979, KR published an excerpt from Gabriel García Márquez’s short novel In Evil Hour in a translation by Gregory Rabassa. The novel, originally entitled Este pueblo de mierda, or “This Town of Shit,” was written in Paris during an early period of political exile, during which the novelist lived on money earned by returning bottles for their deposits. Strongly influenced by Hemingway, it is the novel which most directly considers the period of Columbian political oppression known as la violencia.