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I have seen several analyses and reviews that claim the story is set in the fifties.

I think the story is actually set in 1947. Could this be right?

Here is my reasoning:

  1. The narrator says that he is finally ready to write the book in 1979. He also says that he is finally ready thirty-two years after that emotional Monday (meaning the day of Santiago's murder).
  2. There are mentions of "the end of the civil wars". Colombia had one relatively long period without civil wars. This lasted from 1902 till 1948. In that period it would make sense to believe the civil wars over and talk about them in the past. After that period and right in the middle of the next civil war it wouldn't make sense. That would make 1947 fit, but not 1954.

I know that in the end it is not terribly important whether it was 1954 or 1947, but I'm curious why the explicit mention of the thirty-two years has been ignored.

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