“To the north [of the mouth of the Río Magdalena], beyond a sea of golden clouds, the Caribbean sky fades to lapis blue in the falling light. To the west, the sun sets upon the Atrato and the rain forests of Darién, the Gulf of Urabá, and all the lost islands of Panama. To the east, the beaches and rocky shores run away to Santa Marta and beyond, past the Ciénaga Grande, the vast wetland that shimmers as a great mirror to the heavens, to the soaring flanks of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the highest coastal mountain range on earth, reaching finally to the sands of the Guajira, the desert peninsula where Colombians reinvented grit, commerce, resilience, and passion.”
––Wade Davis, Magdalena – River of Dreams: A Story of Colombia, Alfred A. Knopf 2020, from the excerpt at Penguin Random House Canada
Photo of the Magdalena river – and forthcoming review – by Nick Coghlan.
Canadian Writers Abroad 