Author: Gabriel García Márquez
- Fiction
- Vintage Espanol
- ISBN:  9780307475442
- Release Date: 01-01-1970
-Reviewed by: America Reads Spanish

The second novel of the Colombian Nobel prize winner narrates the vain hopes of a Colonel, who every Friday awaits an official letter in reply to his justified claim for a pension. The internal tension of the novel arises from the juxtaposition of minutely described daily miseries and the stoical optimism of the main character.