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.
