I was tempted to include Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths, which i think is the best short story of all; others i've read by him were interesting but not quite up to that phenomenal standard. Forking Paths seems to encompass the whole universe, wthin a little espionage thriller. I've tried your top 4 (well not Marquez' Colonel) so next logical step would seem to be Oz + Ghosh.