Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude seemed destined for obscurity upon its publication in 1967. The little-known author, small publisher, magical style, and setting in a remote Caribbean village were hardly the usual ingredients for success in the literary marketplace. Yet today it ranks among the best-selling books of all time. Translated into dozens of languages, it continues to enter the lives of new readers around the world. How did One Hundred Years of Solitude achieve this unlikely success? And what does its trajectory tell us about how a work of art becomes a classic?

Ascent to Glory is a groundbreaking study of One Hundred Years of Solitude, from the moment García Márquez first had the idea for the novel to its global consecration. Using new documents from the author’s archives, Álvaro Santana-Acuña shows how García Márquez wrote the novel, going beyond the many legends that surround it. He unveils the literary ideas and networks that made possible the book’s creation and initial success. Santana-Acuña then follows this novel’s path in more than seventy countries on five continents and explains how thousands of people and organizations have helped it to become a global classic. Shedding new light on the novel’s imagination, production, and reception, Ascent to Glory is an eye-opening book for cultural sociologists and literary historians as well as for fans of García Márquez and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

"Ascent to Glory is essential reading for anyone interested in Latin American literature in general and the life and work of Gabriel García Márquez in particular, but should also be of interest to anyone interested in culture and its workings (including star- and 'classic'-making)." - Complete Review

"Placing García Márquez so carefully among the nuanced forces of Latin American literature, however, makes this an essential book for readers of Cien Años and a rewarding one for anyone interested in the globalization of world literature." - World Literature Today

"The book constitutes an enjoyable narrative that can be read by specialists and non-specialists alike." - Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change

"An essential work for admirers of One Hundred Years of Solitude as well as for those interested in examining the mechanisms of a text acquiring a global identity." - Telegraph India

"An intelligent, appealing, instructive book." - St. Orberose

"This is a book for those interested in the sociology of literature, Latin American literature in particular. Recommended." - Choice

"The book is well founded and attention grabbing, while its most important contribution is probably its perspective on cultural value and the classic: it emphasizes the social story which makes the artwork an integral part of people’s lives, accommodating both the creative act and the role of a multifaceted process of cultural brokerage." - Cultural Sociology

"If Santana-Acuña’s book is a love letter to One Hundred Years of Solitude and its fans, it’s also a love letter to those wizened enough to resist sanding off the jagged edges of history." - Public Books

"Ascent to Glory is that rarest of things, a readable and enjoyable scholarly book." - ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America

"A compelling alternative critical approach to the study of literary classics in general." - Latino Book Review

"Stimulating, very informative, beautiful book!" - Al Femminile

"Santana-Acuña unpacks how One Hundred Years of Solitude became a classic by arguing against the myth of the author as a 'solitary genius.'" - Latin American Literature Today

"It is refreshing to read a book such as Santana-Acuña’s, which attempts a new take on [García Márquez's] classic, and indeed on classics in general." - Modern Language Notes

"Ascent to Glory is a work of unusual lucidity and depth." - Hispania

"Álvaro Santana-Acuña’s book is an excellent achievement, standing as a testimony to his exhaustive primary archival research. His writing is clear and accurate, and he manages to convey his infectious passion for his subject in concise terms, which are easily grasped by those outside of the academic sphere." - European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology

"A tour de force....a major empirical contribution to the sociology of culture." - American Journal of Sociology

"Ascent to Glory is the result of extensive, dedicated, and patient research, and through it Santana-Acuña weaves together sources, discourses, and disciplines to tell a macro-level story about the creation of a work and its realization, dissemination, and continued presence in the world." - Latin American Research Review