Oprah Picks "Love In The Time Of Cholera"

Talk Show Queen Chooses Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Classic

(AP)  Oprah Winfrey has picked "Love in the Time of Cholera," the epic love story by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as her next book club selection.

"If you love love, this book is the best love story ever," Winfrey said Friday on her daytime talk show.

The novel by the Colombian-born Garcia Marquez was published in 1985. Set on the Caribbean coast of South America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it tells the tale of a woman and two men, and an unrequited love that spans 50 years.

"It is so beautifully written that it really takes you to another place in time and will make you ask yourself how long could you or would you wait for love," Winfrey said.

Garcia Marquez, 79, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982. His most famous work, "One Hundred Years of Solitude," was a selection in 2004 for Winfrey's book club.

"He's truly one of our greatest living literary giants," she said.

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Photos: Book People

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Winfrey called the novel one of the greatest love stories she's ever read and the 79-year-old Marquez one of the world's literary giants.

She noted that a film adaptation of "Love in the Time of Cholera" is scheduled for November release. The movie starring Javier Bardem and Benjamin Bratt was directed by Mike Newell ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire").

"If you're like me, you'll want to read the book before you see the movie," Winfrey said, but suggested book clubs could hold their next meeting at the movie theater.