The Colombian literary classic that captivated them both

It turns out Pedro Pascal and Dua Lipa have more in common than global stardom, they’re both spellbound by the same iconic novel: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.

The Latin American literary classic, which traces the rise and fall of the Buendía family in the mythical town of Macondo, appears on both stars’ reading lists, and for a good reason.

While promoting ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps,’ Pascal named the Colombian author’s most famous work as one of his all-time favorites. Just months earlier, Dua Lipa gave her own heartfelt review of the book via her platform Service95, calling it “an epic tale” that completely “captivated” her. 

© JOLMES CARDONA

Dua described being enchanted by Márquez’s storytelling. “This incredible novel put me under a spell. I was captivated by the fantastical elements that live alongside reality and loved how time loops and sways in the fictional town of Macondo,” she wrote.

“Getting lost and succumbing to the mastery of Gabriel García Márquez’s storytelling is all part of the joy of this epic tale,” she reflected.

© Pascal Le Segretain

Meanwhile, Pedro Pascal has long been vocal about his appreciation for literature with existential themes, poetic prose, and a touch of the surreal, all of which ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ delivers.

The actor went on to share a list of his favorite books, which include Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, a Russian literary classic from 1866, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Set in Soviet-era Moscow and written between 1928 and 1940.

© Dominique Charriau

Pascal also expresses admiration for Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel about a fiercely independent orphan navigating Victorian social constraints, East of Eden by Nobel laureate John Steinbeck, which was published in 1952, and traces the lives of the Trask and Hamilton families in California’s Salinas Valley. 

The star added one last favorite, “And, and, and, The Magic Mountain, by a German author named Thomas Mann.” This 1924 novel takes place in a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, where a man’s three-week visit turns into a seven-year stay.