One Hundred Years of Solitude

metals nor had the embers
gone out under the water pipe
where José Arcadio Buendía
had vaporized mercury. On
the shelves were the books
bound in a cardboard-like
material, pale, like tanned
human skin, and the
manuscripts were intact. In
spite of the rooms having
been shut up for many years,
the air seemed fresher than in
the rest of the house.
Everything was so recent that