Leaf Storm and Other Stories is a collection of fiction by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. The collection includes the title novella, Leaf Storm (La Hojarasca), first published in its original Spanish-language text in 1955. When Gregory Rabassa produced the first English translation of the novella, it was published (originally in 1972) alongside six short stories representing García Márquez’s work between 1951 and 1968.

The collection offers an early glimpse into the magical realism and rural settings that came to characterize García Márquez’s best-known works, including his magnum opus, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Leaf Storm centers on the funeral of a doctor who’s despised by the people of his rural town, Macondo. The other stories in the collection explore strange events or the lives of larger-than-life characters who leave a significant impact on the village communities that witness them. Throughout these stories, García Márquez explores several themes: The Burden of Inherited Identity, The Impact of Social Dynamics on Moral Responsibility, and The Violence of Social Exclusion.

This guide is based on the mass market paperback edition, translated into English by Gregory Rabassa and published by Avon in 1973.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide feature depictions of death, death by suicide, pregnancy termination, racism, physical abuse, child abuse, emotional abuse, child death, mental illness, illness, self-harm, animal cruelty and death, gender discrimination, and ableism.

Plot Summaries

Leaf Storm and Other Stories includes one novella and six short stories. The novella includes a brief introduction, which establishes the setting of Macondo in the wake of a leaf storm that reshapes the town’s topography.

Leaf Storm follows three members of a prosperous family in Macondo as they lead the funeral of a disgraced doctor who failed to administer aid to the wounded. Each family member is preoccupied with different concerns, but all are united by the fraught history of their town and the prospect of their ostracization as they associate with the doctor. In the end, the town allows the funeral to proceed, as it becomes apparent that the town is too ruined for anyone to take offense.

“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” begins when a large man washes up on the shore of an unnamed village. Though the villagers can’t determine the man’s origins and identity, they’re all stunned by his beauty, which drives them to organize a grand sea funeral out of sympathy for him. After his departure, the villagers redevelop their buildings to fit the man, should he ever return.

In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” a man suspected of being an angel is discovered on the property of a couple named Pelayo and Elisenda. The old man is placed in their chicken coop and quickly becomes a local attraction that makes the couple rich. The old man is quickly forgotten when he’s overshadowed by a carnival attraction, but he continues to live in squalor on the couple’s estate. As the story ends, the old man regains his gift for flight and leaves the couple behind.

“Blacamán the Good, Vendor of Miracles” is the story of an aspiring fortune teller who studies under the tutelage of his namesake, a potion vendor named Blacamán the Bad. The mentor frequently abuses his protégé, which ends when the latter discovers his gift for resurrection. As Blacamán the Good gains prominence as a faith healer, he eclipses his mentor and traps him in a never-ending cycle of living death in a mausoleum.

In “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship,” a boy who spends his youth trying to convince others that a ghost ship crashes into the harbor every year on the same night. When the people refuse to believe him, the boy goes on a vindictive quest to save the ghost ship from its inevitable collision. However, to satisfy his anger, he redirects the ship toward the village, causing the newly materialized ship to devastate it.

“Monologue of Isabel Watching It Rain in Macondo” features the return of several characters from Leaf Storm as they experience an apocalyptic rainstorm in the village of Macondo. Isabel gradually stops experiencing her senses as the storm stretches out, but she also tries to reckon with sadness as her house is changed by the relentless storm. In the end, she learns to find peace in emptiness, even if it reminds her of death.

In “Nabo,” the title character wakes up after he’s kicked in the head by a horse. Through a fragmented narrative, the story follows Nabo as he insists on staying where he is while also revealing how his family of employers leaves him in a state of neglect, hoping that he’ll one day die. As the story ends, Nabo breaks out of his imprisonment, eliciting a response from a member of the family who has muteness and is treated as having catatonia.