The son of one of the greatest writers of our time—Nobel Prize winner and internationally best-selling icon Gabriel García Márquez—remembers his beloved father and mother in this tender memoir about love and loss.

“I find myself remembering that my father used to say that everyone has three lives: the public, the private, and the secret.”

On a weekday morning in March 2014, Gabriel García Márquez, one of the most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century, came down with a cold.

In this intimate and honest account on grief and death, Rodrigo Garcia not only contemplates his father’s mortality and remarkable humanity, but also his mother’s tremendous charm and tenderness. Mercedes Barcha, Gabo’s constant companion and creative muse, was one of the foremost influences on his life and art.

A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes is a revelatory portrait of a family coping with loss and a rich depiction of a son’s love.