No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel García Márquez.

In a forgotten coastal town, an old colonel and his asthmatic wife cling to dignity amid crushing poverty. Every Friday for fifteen years, he checks the mail for a pension that never comes. With quiet defiance, he bets their future on a fighting rooster—symbol of pride, hunger, and absurd hope.In just 100 pages, Márquez weaves magical realism into raw human resilience. This novella is a masterclass in restraint, irony, and the weight of waiting. Read it in one sitting. Let its silence speak. “The world had changed; only the colonel hadn’t noticed.”