<P> Since García Márquez was eighteen, he had wanted to write a novel based on his grandparents' house where he grew up . However, he struggled with finding an appropriate tone and put off the idea until one day the answer hit him while driving his family to Acapulco . He turned the car around and the family returned home so he could begin writing . He sold his car so his family would have money to live on while he wrote, but writing the novel took far longer than he expected, and he wrote every day for eighteen months . His wife had to ask for food on credit from their butcher and their baker as well as nine months of rent on credit from their landlord . During the eighteen months of writing, García Márquez met with two couples, Eran Carmen and Álvaro Mutis, and María Luisa Elío and Jomí García Ascot, every night and discussed the progress of the novel, trying out different versions . Fortunately, when the book was finally published in 1967 it became his most commercially successful novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, which sold more than 30 million copies (Cien años de soledad) (1967; English translation by Gregory Rabassa 1970) and was dedicated "Para (to) Jomí García Ascot y María Luisa Elío". The story chronicles several generations of the Buendía family from the time they founded the fictional South American village of Macondo, through their trials and tribulations, instances of incest, births and deaths . The history of Macondo is often generalized by critics to represent rural towns throughout Latin America or at least near García Márquez's native Aracataca . </P> <P> This novel was widely popular and led to García Márquez's Nobel Prize as well as the Rómulo Gallegos Prize in 1972 . William Kennedy has called it "the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race," and hundreds of articles and books of literary critique have been published in response to it . Despite the many accolades the book received, García Márquez tended to downplay its success . He once remarked: "Most critics don't realize that a novel like One Hundred Years of Solitude is a bit of a joke, full of signals to close friends; and so, with some pre-ordained right to pontificate they take on the responsibility of decoding the book and risk making terrible fools of themselves ." </P> <P> After writing One Hundred Years of Solitude García Márquez returned to Europe, this time bringing along his family, to live in Barcelona, Spain, for seven years . The international recognition García Márquez earned with the publication of the novel led to his ability to act as a facilitator in several negotiations between the Colombian government and the guerrillas, including the former 19th of April Movement (M - 19), and the current FARC and ELN organizations . The popularity of his writing also led to friendships with powerful leaders, including one with former Cuban president Fidel Castro, which has been analyzed in Gabo and Fidel: Portrait of a Friendship . It was during this time that he was punched in the face by Mario Vargas Llosa in what became one of the largest feuds in modern literature . In an interview with Claudia Dreifus in 1982 García Márquez notes his relationship with Castro is mostly based on literature: "Ours is an intellectual friendship . It may not be widely known that Fidel is a very cultured man . When we're together, we talk a great deal about literature ." This relationship was criticized by Cuban exile writer Reinaldo Arenas, in his 1992 memoir Antes de que Anochezca (Before Night Falls). </P> <P> Due to his newfound fame and his outspoken views on U.S. imperialism Garcia Márquez was labeled as a subversive and for many years was denied visas by U.S. immigration authorities . After Bill Clinton was elected U.S. president, he lifted the travel ban and cited One Hundred Years of Solitude as his favorite novel . </P>

Name the book which turned gabriel garcia marquez into global figure as a writer