The spell he casts seems eternal. Gabriel Garcia Marquez walks tall over the literary landscape of Kerala as if it is a small stretch of Latin America where the man is revered as the God of literature. Even after a decade since his death, this great writer from Latin America, is still being celebrated by the literati here, as if he had arrived at the scene first with his redoubtable tour de force 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' which had redrawn the boundaries of literature with the mesmerizing  'magical realism', leaving the readers across the world spellbound.

Despite being dubbed by many readers as a damp squib,' Until August', tagged by the publishers as the 'lost novel', which has failed to evoke the same excitement as in  'Love in the time of Cholera',  The General in his Labyrinth'  or even 'Memories of my melancholy whores',  has already turned the literary world abuzz with sighs of despair and jeers of excitement, starting even a debate whether the novel should have been published against the wishes of Marquez.  

Since the master himself wished the non publication of this novel, as he reportedly had  said to his sons, 'This book doesn't work, it must be destroyed', many of his fans in Kerala do not seem to be overexcited and some of them have even gone to the extent of reproaching the sons for publishing the novel eyeing financial gain.  'This book should not have reached the readers of Marquez as he had left a deep impact among them with his masterly crafted out novels like One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in The time of Cholera', said writer CV Balakrishnan.

Marquez's sons Rodrigo Garcia and Gonzalo Garcia, are also of the opinion that there are some loose ends and contradictions in the novel, as their father was not in the best of his mental faculties while writing the manuscript of this novel. According to them, at a certain point, Gabo had given up the project, as dementia had caught up with him, saying 'Memory is at once my source material and my tool. Without it, there's nothing'.  

The story of  Ana Magdalene Bach, a middle aged woman, who enters into love relationships with total strangers during her yearly visits to a Caribbean island where her mother is buried,  in August ,   makes the reader engaged till the very end. As one closes the last page of 'Until August', a wave of sorrow envelopes them, as this is a painful, unofficial,  goodbye from the master of imagination, the ultimate magician of magical realism.  

Vaikom Murali, one of the most celebrated readers of Kerala, who passionately hunts for new works of literature from various parts of the world, seems a bit annoyed over the hype built in connection with the book . 'This is a perfect occasion for Marquez fans. Let them rejoice and celebrate. I am not going to join them. There are equally brilliant writers from Latin America, like Alejo Carpentier and Augusto Roa Bastos. I want these Marquez fans to read 'I the Supreme' and 'Reasons of State' to have a deeper and better understanding about Latin American literature', Murali said.

Novelist and critic Ajay P Mangattu says that, whether the book fails to excite the readers or not, one cannot blame Marquez for the release of 'Until August'. 'This is a moment for the fans across the world. We cannot refute the fact that it is a real literary event, an occasion for the fans across the world to rejoice', he said. Aneesh Kumar, manager, Mathrubhumi books, Kozhikode, says that the book has been received well by the readers. 'The price, Rs.800 for a 110 page book, seems a bit high. Still, people come in large numbers to buy this book'.   It is too early to judge the success of the book as it was released only on March 14. Still, Gabo seems to be the most influential Latin American writer in Kerala.