'On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on'

Santiago Nasar is brutally murdered by two brothers in a small town. All the townspeople knew it was going to happen - including the victim. But nobody did anything to prevent the killing. Twenty-seven years later, a man arrives in town to try and piece together the truth from the contradictory testimonies of the townsfolk. To at last understand what happened to Santiago, and why...

'A work of high explosiveness - the proper stuff of Nobel prizes. An exceptional novel that shows how a whole community is to blame for a murder which is dressed up as an affair of honour' - The Times

'A tour de force of moral and emotional complexity' - Angela Carter, Guardin

'A masterpiece' - Evening Standard