Garcia Marquez's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' tops world literature poll

London, Sep 25 (ANI): 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by the Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez has topped the list of books that have most shaped world literature of the last 25 years.

Other books that made it to the varied list include 'Dreams of My Father' by US President Barack Obama, 'he Satanic Verses' by Sir Salman Rushdie, and 'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov.

However, it was only Marquez's magical realist masterpiece, which he wrote in 1967, and was translated into English in 1970, that was identified by more than one author.

Three writers- Nigerian author Chika Unigwe, Ghanaian poet Nii Parkes and Indian poet Sujata Bhatt-named the book as the most influential in the poll organised by the international writing magazine Wasafiri.

Parkes said that the book, which contributed to Marquez being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, "taught the west how to read a reality alternative to their own, which in turn opened the gates for other non-western writers like myself and other writers from Africa and Asia."

Sir Salman Rushdie's works - The Satanic Verses and Midnight's Children - garnered two nominations, from Tabish Khair and Lesley Lokko.

"One can love it or hate it - personally I feel a position in between is the clearest indicator of sanity in today's world - but one cannot ignore it," the Telegraph quoted Khair, an Indian author, as saying of The Satanic Verses.

Poetry also made it to the list, with 'North' by Seamus Heaney, 'Birthday Letters' by Ted Hughes and 'Collected Poems' by Allen Ginsberg among those selected.

The poll was commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of Wasafiri, which means "cultural traveller" in Swahili. (ANI)