Mail of Memories

Author's name: Emma Rees

When Gabriel García Márquez read Emma Reyes' letters, in which she recounted the strangest and most beautiful stories of her childhood and adolescence to a close friend, the Nobel laureate was so captivated by the Colombian writer's writing that he contacted her to express his profound admiration. She, however, was furious with their mutual friend, believing he had violated their implicit agreement of privacy by showing García Márquez her letters, and she refused to write to him for over twenty years. She resumed their correspondence at the end of the last century, and after much resistance, agreed to the publication of her letters on the condition that the proceeds from the book be donated to an orphanage.

First published in 2012, "The Mail of Memories" was met with overwhelming acclaim, winning the Book of the Year award in Colombia and being translated into numerous languages. The very existence of this work, and everything connected to it, is exceptional and remarkable, especially its author: a gifted storyteller who didn't learn to read and write until late in life, and a visual artist who remained confined to a convent until she was nearly eighteen. Perhaps it is the innocence with which Emma paints her childhood scenes that makes her letters so extraordinary, for she still sees through the eyes of the little girl she once was, with all her wonder and spontaneity.

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