A captivating new book from Wade Davis--award-winning, best-selling
author and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence for more than a
decade--that brings vividly to life the story of the great Río
Magdalena, illuminating Colombia's complex past, present, and future
Travelers often become enchanted with the first country that captures
their hearts and gives them license to be free. For Wade Davis, it was
Colombia. Now in a masterly new book, Davis tells of his travels on the
mighty Magdalena, the river that made possible the nation. Along the
way, he finds a people who have overcome years of conflict precisely
because of their character, informed by an enduring spirit of place, and
a deep love of a land that is home to the greatest ecological and
geographical diversity on the planet. Only in Colombia can a traveler
wash ashore in a coastal desert, follow waterways through wetlands as
wide as the sky, ascend narrow tracks through dense tropical forests,
and reach verdant Andean valleys rising to soaring ice-clad summits.
Both a corridor of commerce and a fountain of culture, the wellspring of
Colombian music, literature, poetry, and prayer, the Magdalena has
served in dark times as the graveyard of the nation. And yet, always, it
returns as a river of life.
At once an absorbing adventure and an inspiring tale of hope and
redemption, Magdalena Braids together memoir, history, and journalism
to tell the epic story of Colombia.
