Magdalena

River of Dreams: A Story of Colombia

By: Wade Davis

Narrated by: Wade Davis, Xandra Uribe

Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

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. As Gabriel García Márquez once wrote during his own pilgrimage on the river: "The only reason I would like to be young again would be the chance to travel again on a freighter going up the Magdalena". 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. This rugged and impossible geography finds its perfect coefficient in the topography of the Colombian spirit: restive, potent, at times placid and calm, in moments explosive and wild.

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 gives us a rare, kaleidoscopic picture of a nation on the verge of a new period of peace. Braiding together memoir, history, and journalism, Wade Davis tells the story of the country's most magnificent river, and in doing so, tells the epic story of Colombia.

©2020 Wade Davis (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"This shimmering portrait of the Río Magdalena, evoking its moods and depths, ultimately reveals the complicated nation those waters sustain and reflect. Never wincing from dark histories, yet never abandoning hope, Wade Davis shows us why Colombia stole his heart as a young traveler and holds it still." (Kate Harris, author of Lands of Lost Borders)

"Illustrative... Davis's deep knowledge of and decades-long familiarity with Colombia notwithstanding, the freshest and most insightful sections occur when he is in the company of resident experts, and he is gracious enough to acknowledge that debt... Illuminating." (The Times Literary Supplement)

"Ardent.... 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, starred)

'magic realism'

Wade Davis is a sensitive anthropologist and superb story teller. Even though "Magdalena" deals with some of the bloodiest and most violent passages of the history of Colombia, the elegance and precision of his descriptions transport the reader with ease to the natural theater of unfolding tragedies and accept their inevitable outcomes.
The comparison with "Love in the Time of Cholera" (El amor en los tiempos del cólera) a novel by Colombian Nobel prize winning author Gabriel García Márquez is within easy reach: a question of 'similar differences' and 'different similarities', imagination and reality overflowing each other's boundaries — its setting also the Magdalena River.

Fantastic!

If you want to learn about the history, nature, people, and music of Colombia this is the book for you.
The book uses the Magdalena (the Mississippi of Colombia) as a foil to describe the nature and the stories of this most unique land. The breadth of the book is immense - from the freshwater manatees, to the atrocities of paramilitaries, to the history of the founding of the nation, to the evolution of cumbia.

The narration is spot on. Interesting, layered, book.

Increible

Passionate, scholarly, so well researched and told. Of great import to those who seek to understand one of the most complex and important areas in the world. Geography, ethnographic, you name it. Dystopian w. a bright glimmer of hope. Changed me.

Incredible, opened my eyes wide

Still reeling from the interwoven complex beautiful nature of the story telling.
Amazing tour through the time and place that left me unduly impressed and hopeful.
The history as told with reference to the Rio Magdalena is unforgettable logical and truly magical
Thank you Wade

I need to go to Colombia NOW!! post covid...;)

Wade Davis love and longing for all things Colombian is infectious. This living narrative as told by many and written by Wade so expressively weaves the story and history of Colombia together like a brilliantly colored Wayuu mochila!! Love this book and love Colombia!

Magdalena River of dreams

Fué extraordinario y más leído por el, sería importante que todos los Colombianos lo leyeran como cultura general, y para tener en la cabeza todo el país, tan biodiverso y grandioso en el que nacimos y amarlo, cuidarlo y conservarlo. Wade debería ser nuestro ministro de Medio Ambiente. Gracias!! lo he recomendado muchisimo.

Living in Colombia

for the last 5 years but with bits and pieces of the county's history - Magdalena is a colorful lesson of it's history, It covers 1000 years up to present day political conflicts from the perspective of the river. I now have a million more places to explore in this breathtaking county.

A must read for colombians

I enjoyed a lot listening to Wade Davis. Being.a colombian myself the story telled in this audiobook has helped me connect many dots as the river Magdalena has ports. It is true we have our backs facing the river and realizing this brought me to tears many times while walking and listening how for decades we have turn this artery of the country in our flowing graveyard.
Realizing we are an anfibian culture is something I will keep from this reading. This is a reminder of an idea developed early on by Orlando Fals Borda, founder of sociolocy as an academic career at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. It is an idea that hopefully not comes too late in my career as a teacher. I intend to spread this meme on to my students.
Wade Davis' profound love for Colombia is felt in every sentence in this book. We colombians need to feel it too in order to give the river, and therefore the country, a chance

Deep and abiding

This book is a love story to Colombia, and makes me want to travel every inch of that amazing country. I can't praise the book highly enough.

A glimpse into the beauty and resilience of Colombia

Listening to the audio version feels like your sitting with friends around a campfire sharing stories of incredible sadness, ever present hope and nostalgia. If you have spent any time in Colombia you know that it’s people and terrain are easy to love. This book explains why.