The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor

Gabriel García Márquez’s The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor was first published in Spain in 1970 under the title Relato de un naufrago (“story of a castaway”). The nonfiction work relates Luis Alejandro Velasco’s 10-day survival adrift on a raft in the Caribbean after being thrown overboard from his Colombian destroyer in rough seas. While there had been a censored, government-backed version of Velasco’s story that was publicized, the uncensored story was first published in the Colombian newspaper, El Espectador, in 14 installments. Márquez, still young and not yet a famous author, was working as a newspaper journalist at the time. He ghostwrote the story, and Velasco appeared as the author. The uncensored story’s newspaper publication exposed the Colombian government’s corruption and incompetence, causing a political scandal that eventually led to Márquez leaving for Paris and the newspaper’s brief closure; hence the book’s full title: The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor Who Drifted on a Liferaft for Ten Days Without Food or Water, Was Proclaimed a National Hero, Kissed by Beauty Queens, Made Rich Through Publicity, and Then Spurned by the Government and Forgotten for All Time.

This study guide uses the Penguin Books Limited edition published March 6, 2014.