Romanians bough well over half a million books - 600,000 copies - by late Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the last 20 years, which made Marquez one of the best sold authors at the Rao publishing house in Romania, according to its representatives.

Marquez, who died last week aged 87, is a Nobel Prize-winning author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera”. These two books were among the most popular in Romania too, according to Rao representatives, quoted by Mediafax newswire. The publishing house, which holds the exclusive rights over Marquez' books in Romania, is working on re-publishing some of the author's best books.

The Colombian writer is credited for having helped popularize 'magical realism', a genre which combines fantastic and reality “in a richly composed world of imagination,” according to the Nobel committee that awarded hi the prize in 1982. Marquez was also considered the most significant Spanish-language author since Miguel de Cervantes.

His best known novel, One hundred years of solitude, published in 1967, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

editor@romania-insider.com