Marquez suffers from dementia, brother says

MEXICO CITY - Agence France-Presse

Gabriel Garcia Marquez (R) is best known for his ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude.’ AP Photo

Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, arguably best known for his “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” is suffering from senile dementia, his brother has said.

The 85-year-old author’s brother Jaime told El Universal in Mexico, where Garcia Marquez lives, that he speaks to the 1982 Nobel winner nearly every day from their native Colombia, hoping to help keep some of his memories alive.

 “What he has are some memory issues; in our family, we all end up with senile dementia. I am starting to get some of the onset complications and he already is in the throes of it,” said Jaime Garcia Marquez.

He said it had been a very slow downward slide for his author brother, who has had some symptoms of the condition since 1999, when he was treated for lymphatic cancer – a condition which nearly killed him.

The author then underwent chemotherapy treatment, which sped up the pace of memory loss, his brother added.