( CNN ) -- The health of literary giant Gabriel Garcia Marquez is stable but `` very fragile , '' his family said in a statement this week . At 87 years old , his age means `` there are risks of complications , '' the family said . The Colombian author has been recovering at his Mexico City home since April 8 , after being hospitalized for nine days for infections in his lungs and his urinary tract . `` He is and will continue to recover at his home , '' the family said . Garcia Marquez 's wife , Mercedes Barcha , and his sons Rodrigo and Gonzalo , thanked the public for its outpouring of support , and asked for privacy . The Nobel Prize recipient , known as `` Gabo , '' was born in the northern Colombian town of Aracataca , the inspiration for the fictional town of Macondo , the setting of the 1967 novel `` One Hundred Years of Solitude . '' He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982 `` for his novels and short stories , in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination , reflecting a continent 's life and conflicts , '' according to the Nobel Prize website .
The Colombian author is in stable condition , the family says . He is convalescing at his home in Mexico City . Garcia Marquez , 87 , was hospitalized this month for an infection .