If you consider the sensational things that happen in a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel — butterflies fluttering around certain people, beautiful girls ascending to heaven, dictators selling off the oceans — which are apparently all rooted in reality, the “story” behind his spat with Mario Vargas Llosa for 30 years now seems quite Marquezian.

It’s about two best friends who lived on the same street for two years in Barcelona. The story goes, perhaps not apocryphal, that one friend strays, much to the distress of his wife. When she turns to their best friend for succour, he “consoles” her. This doesn’t go down well with her husband, who socks the best friend in the eye the next time they meet.

Though neither has commented about the incident, there has been intense speculation about the very public falling out over a very personal matter. Now, with the publication of pictures showing Garcia Marquez with a black eye, thanks to Llosa, there’s a new buzz in the literary world about an old feud.

Truth is, these two literary giants have moved apart both for personal and political reasons. And yet, they had many meeting points — one of their favourite writers is Faulkner; both mine stories of their childhood for novels (Marquez for One Hundred Years of Solitude, Llosa for The Time of the Hero, just to give one example, there are many).

Then again, such was their friendship that Marquez agreed to be godfather to Llosa’s second child; Llosa wrote a 600-page book on Marquez’s work.

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