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Magdalena: River of Dreams
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About This Book
A captivating new book from Wade Davis--award-winning, bestselling author and photographer, 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 in the process The Magdalena is the lifeline that runs the length of the nation. For centuries, it allowed Colombians to settle their mountainous, geographically unique region--one of the most challenging on the planet. Colombia's complicated history reflects the beautiful, wild and impossible geography of its largest river: in places, it is placid and calm, in other moments, tortured and unpredictable. A cultural wellspring of music, poetry, and literature, in dark times the Magdalena has also served as the nation's graveyard. As the country enters a momentous period of revitalization, Wade Davis explores the three major sections of the river, alto, medio, and bajo, evoking each singular landscape and the people he meets there in poetic, nuanced writing, accompanied by his own striking photography. At once an absorbing adventure and an inspiring story of hope and redemption, MAGDALENA gives us a rare, kaleidoscopic picture of a nation often reduced to unfair clichés of drug cartels and violence. Through many years of uncertainty, however, the Magdalena never abandoned its people, always returning as a life-giving force, the source of much of the nation's wealth--and its dreams. Seamlessly weaving together memoir, history, and a remarkable tale of a nation rising to bring about transformational change, Wade Davis tells the story of this magnificent river with passion and love, and in doing so, tells the epic story of Colombia.
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Reviews
"This eclectic log-book of life on the river puts one in mind of Ryszard Kapuściński's idea of travel writing as 'authenticated by its being lived'—'you have experienced this event on your own skin, and it is this experience, this feeling along the surface of your skin, which gives your story its coherence.'"
"Magdalena is a devotee's pilgrimage ..."
"In this deeply inquisitive, dazzlingly fluent scientific, cultural, and spiritual investigation, Davis illuminates the natural and human history of Río Magdalena ..."
"The result is a rich, fascinating study of how nature and a people shape each other."
"the book is also an affecting account of on-the-ground exploration."
"This book is the culmination of a lifetime's work in the country and is suffused with a love and knowledge that only such long acquaintance can bring."
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