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Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s seminal novel One Hundred Years of Solitude tops the list of books that have most shaped world literature over the last twenty-five years, according to a survey of international writers specially commissioned by Wasafiri magazine.

One Hundred Years of Solitude was published in 1967 and brought the author Nobel’s award in 1982. The invented city Macondo reflects the events in Marquez’s homeland – Columbia.

The 25 books were chosen by 25 respected names in international writing. The list of prize-winning fiction, poetry and ground-breaking non-fiction includes Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie; Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama; Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes; Nabokov’s Lolita and JM Coetzee’s Disgrace. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude was the only book to have been picked by more than one writer, demonstrating the huge breadth of writing covered within world literature.