Márquez Left Behind an Unpublished Book. Yup.

Oh, so here's some news to take in with your coffee: Gabriel García Márquez left behind an unpublished manuscript. I won't say anything more gilded than that, because I know you'll probably need a second to digest that sentence — I know I did.

NPR reports that following Márquez's death at 87 years old last week, Cristobal Pera, editorial director of Penguin Random House Mexico, revealed the existence of the manuscript, tentatively titled We'll See Each Other in August. Here's the kicker, though: He's said that Márquez's family hasn't yet decided whether or not they'll be publishing the work.

While we wait with bated breath to see the ultimate fate of the manuscript, a sliver of the prose from En agosto nos vemos is up for you to devour over at La Vanguardia — but I hope you've brushed up on your Español. (Chrome's auto-translate button isn't terribly kind to one of the most influential, magical writers of all time.)

According to the AP, the excerpt appears to be a first chapter. It describes a middle-aged married woman having an affair at a hotel on a tropical island where she stays during yearly visits to her mother's grave. In true form to Márquez, descriptions draw in the reader and hold her tighly: the prose is lush, sensual, and even a bit erotic.

As we've discussed before, posthumous publishing is an eerie beast ethically, philosophically, and even financially — and titles of many great authors including Foster Wallace, Nabokov, Salinger, Fitzgerald, and more have become wrapped up in it. What'll become of We'll See Each Other in August? We'll see.