Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez has a lot to celebrate, reports the CBC. The author turns 80 today, and this year also marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of his classic novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, as well as the 25th anniversary of his Nobel Prize win.

In Madrid, a public marathon reading of the novel kicked off the celebration, started by Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega. More events are scheduled across Latin America and Spain to celebrate the anniversaries.

Marquez currently lives in Mexico City. After being diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 2000, he began writing his memoirs, releasing the first of three planned volumes two years later. Living to Tell the Tale, the English translation, came out in 2003.