Magdalena

engineering firm in 1907, only to turn to the Germans in 1912, then a national consortium in 1919, until finally, in 1924, with little accomplished, the flow of money was directed once again to the Americans. Puerto Colombia was abandoned, its magnificent pier left to crumble into fragments of concrete and iron. In 1943, in a move tainted by the scent of politics, the use of any of the port facilities at Puerto Colombia was prohibited by law. Ultimately, all that remained was destroyed by the sea.

The river mouth, meanwhile, was reinforced with a long line of breakers, parallel to the flow, intended to direct the Magdalena into a narrow channel, concentrating its force that it might sweep all sediments to the sea. Unfortunately, the barriers, built at considerable expense over nearly a decade, achieved quite the opposite effect, trapping the sediments and clogging the estuary as never before. The global economic crisis of 1929 suspended work for several years, and it was not until 1936 that President Alfonso López Pumarejo, crossing into the mouth of the Magdalena aboard a destroyer of the Colombian navy, accompanied by an entourage of ministers, admirals, governors, and mayors, was able to officially inaugurate the new canal and the proposed Maritime and Fluvial Terminal, facilities that would not in fact be completed until 1939. Barranquilla, he declared, is, from now on, a port of the sea. Regrettably, this proved to be wishful thinking.

For a time, beginning in 1936, seagoing freighters, vessels of serious draft, were able to make their way into the river and reach the city. But they were fighting the power of a river born a thousand miles to the south in the Macizo Colombiano, a rugged knot of mountains that soars over the continent, giving rise not just to the Magdalena but to the Ríos Putumayo, Cauca, Caquetá, and Patía, not to mention the three great

Charles Nichols, The Guardian (UK) 

"Magdalena is a revelatory and often enchanting book."
The Economist 

"Magnificent... If the Magdalena made Colombia possible, Colombia may just be what made Wade Davis this generation s most extraordinary anthropologist possible... Vivid... For all the beauty and overwhelming profusion rendered in the soaring prose of Wade Davis s book, readers are not spared Colombia s dark side.. And yet, somehow Davis emerges from his unflinching examinations infused with an authentic hope for the future now open to Colombia."
Sarah Chayes, Book Post

"Davis has produced a book as welcome as it is timely... His confidence with both his place in Colombia and the language... means he is able to almost remove himself from the text and allow the river to take its proper place at the center of the book...  As a warning, Magdalena calls for a vital exorcism. As a read, it is a pleasure."
Travel Writing World

"I have just finished reading the book Magdalena by anthropologist and compatriot Wade Davis. All Colombians must read it. To revive the river would be a grand national project."
Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia and recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize

"An epic journey... The book 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."
Jenny Coad, The Times (UK)

"As Colombia comes out of 50 years of civil war and into a still precarious peace, with some 220,000 dead, this timely book explores one of the few dividends to emerge from such a terrible conflict... Wade Davis is well placed to write what he describes as a love letter to Colombia... 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."
The Spectator (UK) 

"In the mid-2010s, as Colombia s nightmare of violence approached an end, the Canadian-born anthropologist, botanist and travel writer [Wade] Davis returned to the river that first enchanted him as a young nomad. The fruit of five years research, Magdalena: River of Dreams traces its course, maps its ecosystems, portrays its peoples and sketches its histories... As Davis notes, within the country , the allegedly magical realities of Colombian storytelling look like simply journalism ... Davis suffuses his reportage with a visionary tinge. But his subject more than warrants it."
Boyd Tonkin, Financial Times

"[A] deeply inquisitive, dazzlingly fluent scientific, cultural, and spiritual investigation... This far-reaching, centuries-encompassing river biography is shaped by Davis' love for Colombia... Always with a discerning eye to the symbolic and metaphorical, Davis tells the river s saga of fecundity and horror through the lives of remarkable individuals past and present... Throughout Davis emphasizes Colombia's many Indigenous peoples and their abiding belief that protecting the river is a sacred duty. The story of Magdalena...  is that of an epic struggle between the sacred and the profane, between worship and preservation and reckless exploitation and wanton abuse."
Donna Seaman, Booklist

"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

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.           
Hector Abad, author of Oblivion

"Few people can interpret Colombia, this most complicated of countries, as Wade Davis does; fewer people still can write about it with such empathy, knowledge and grace. Magdalena is the ultimate proof that Colombia s present and past are inextricably linked to the larger fate of the American continent. To say that the book deserves to be read is perhaps inaccurate; I d rather say that anyone who wishes to understand this mysterious corner of the world deserves Magdalena. It is a capacious, generous and illuminating book."
Juan Gabriel Vásquez, author of The Sound of Things Falling

"Davis is a natural, engaging storyteller... the book is also an affecting account of on-the-ground exploration. The author skillfully weaves in accounts by academics, who have studied the vicissitudes of the river, and by the people who have lived and toiled along its shores... This remarkable river has endured eras of massive extermination, erosion, damming, and pollution, but it has emerged renewed thanks to a people's spirit and resilience. An elegant narrative masterfully combining fine reporting and a moving personal journey."
Kirkus Reviews, starred

"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