Magdalena

Anyone who wishes to understand this mysterious corner of the world deserves Magdalena. It is a capacious, generous and illuminating book

—Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Davis stocks his lively narrative with piquant characters, dramatic historical set pieces, and lyrical nature writing. The result is a rich, fascinating study of how nature and a people shape each other

Publishers Weekly

After all our agonies, Wade Davis, through the evocative power of his writing and the clarity of his understanding, gives us all reason to once again love Colombia. That is the wonder of his book, which in many ways reads as a love letter to a nation

Héctor Abad, author of Oblivion

Shimmering... Never wincing from dark histories, yet never abandoning hope, Wade Davis shows us why Colombia stole his heart as a young traveller and holds it still

Kate Harris, author of Lands of Lost Borders

A magnificent, hugely important book, breathtaking in its scope and vision … a masterpiece … an epic journey across the nation and into its beating heart …essential reading for anyone wanting to understand Colombia

Anna Lewington

[Magdalena] is a rallying cry to save the Magdalena from the destructive effects of industrialisation, but it also aims to reset our impressions of the country as a whole... [Davis's] passion for Colombia is better expressed in the depth of information he delivers - and the poetic way in which he captures its extraordinary landscape. Those pondering a trip will be inspired to veer off the tourist path

Jenny Coad, The Times

Davis is a powerful, penetrating and immensely knowledgeable writer

Charles Nicholl, Guardian, *Book of the Week*

Davis suffuses his reportage with a visionary tinge. But his subject more than warrants it

Boyd Tonkin, Financial Times

Magdalena is a revelatory and often enchanting book

Economist

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

Hugh Thomson, Spectator

Passionate and profoundly engaged... [Davis'] presentation of the great river as Colombia's Mississippi, its fountain of music, the source of its many contradictions...generates an impact that few travel books can muster.

Brian Morton, Tablet

Music and myth, commerce and colonialism, indigeneity and identity: Magdalena is as impressively exploratory in approach as it is encyclopaedic in scope

Oliver Balch, Times Literary Supplement