''The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll'' (orig. Spanish '' Empresas y Tribulaciones de Maqroll el Gaviero'') is a compilation of novellas by

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

n author Álvaro Mutis. First published as a two-volume collection in Colombia in 1993, the work was translated into English by Edith Grossman in 2002. The novellas center on the exploits and adventures of Maqroll the Gaviero (''gavia'' is Spanish for

topsail A topsail ("tops'l") is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails. Square rig On a square rigged vessel, a topsail is a typically trapezoidal shaped sail rigged above the course sail and ...

, and ''gaviero'' is the sailor in charge of the topsail, but there is also a pun with the word ''gavia'' which, like ''gaviota'', also means

seagull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...

), and his travels on sea and on land across the world.

References

1993 novels Colombian novellas {{1990s-novel-stub