My Colombian War

My Colombian War

Author: Silvana Paternostro

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2013-11-05

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 1466856335

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A timely, evocative account of a reporter's reckoning with her homeland's volatile past Growing up in the coastal city of Barranquilla, Colombia, Silvana Paternostro indulged in the typical concerns of a privileged young girl: friendships and parties, school and family. But soon it became apparent that life in Colombia would not go on as usual. Strange planes appeared overhead, the harbingers of the marijuana drug trade that would explode into cocaine wars over the next decade, and soon after, a disputed election would lead to demonstrations and kidnappings targeting the affluent landed elite—including Paternostro's family. A revolution was brewing, and the social inequalities reflected in her life would boil over into the most violent, most protracted, and most misunderstood civil war of our time. In My Colombian War, Paternostro journeys back to the place where her family and her closest friends still live, weaving authentic experience into a history of this ongoing conflict. Through interviews she allows us to witness the treacherous war zone that Colombia has become, projected on the daily lives of its citizens. Paternostro's book is a stunning, comprehensive narrative of Colombia's past and present.


There Are No Dead Here

There Are No Dead Here

Author: Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno

Publisher: Bold Type Books

Published: 2018-02-27

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 1568585802

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The bloody story of the rise of paramilitaries in Colombia, told through three characters -- a fearless activist, a dogged journalist, and a relentless investigator -- whose lives intersected in the midst of unspeakable terror. Colombia's drug-fueled cycle of terror, corruption, and tragedy did not end with Pablo Escobar's death in 1993. Just when Colombians were ready to move past the murderous legacy of the country's cartels, a new, bloody chapter unfolded. In the late 1990s, right-wing paramilitary groups with close ties to the cocaine business carried out a violent expansion campaign, massacring, raping, and torturing thousands. There Are No Dead Here is the harrowing story of three ordinary Colombians who risked everything to reveal the collusion between the new mafia and much of the country's military and political establishment: JesúríValle, a human rights activist who was murdered for exposing a dark secret; IváVeláuez, a quiet prosecutor who took up Valle's cause and became an unlikely hero; and Ricardo Calderóa dogged journalist who is still being targeted for his revelations. Their groundbreaking investigations landed a third of the country's Congress in prison and fed new demands for justice and peace that Colombia's leaders could not ignore. Taking readers from the sweltering Medellístreets where criminal investigators were hunted by assassins, through the countryside where paramilitaries wiped out entire towns, and into the corridors of the presidential palace in BogotáThere Are No Dead Here is an unforgettable portrait of the valiant men and women who dared to stand up to the tide of greed, rage, and bloodlust that threatened to engulf their country.


The Bitch

The Bitch

Author: PILAR. QUINTANA

Publisher:

Published: 2020-08-06

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9781912987054

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Colombia's Pacific coast, where everyday life entails warding off the brutal forces of nature. Damaris lives with her fisherman husband in a shack on a bluff overlooking the sea. Childless and at that age 'when women dry up,' as her uncle puts it, she is eager to adopt an orphaned puppy. But this act may bring more than just affection into her home. The Bitch is written in a prose as terse as the villagers, with storms - both meteorological and emotional - lurking around each corner. Beauty and dread live side by side in this poignant exploration or the many meanings of motherhood and love.


The Colombian Mule

The Colombian Mule

Author: Massimo Carlotto

Publisher: Europa Editions

Published: 2013-09-03

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 1609451481

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“Think The Sopranos meets Goodfellas—without the Americanized gloss . . . [A] not-for-the-faint-hearted novel by an Italian master” (Reading Matters). In The Colombian Mule, the author called “the reigning king of Mediterranean noir” (The Boston Phoenix) and “the best living Italian crime writer” (Il Manifesto) brings to riveting life the story of Arías Cuevas, who sets in motion a chain of bloody events when police catch him trying to carry a shipment of La Tía’s cocaine into Italy. The intended recipient of the coke appears to have been art smuggler Nazzareno Corradi. But Corradi has been set up. He hires a PI known as “the Alligator” to get him out of the mess he’s in. Meanwhile, La Tía, a notoriously ruthless figure in the Colombian drug trade, is determined to move her operation to Italy, where cocaine has become all the rage among the professional classes. There’s only one thing standing in her way: the Alligator. The Alligator, an ex-con-turned-investigator, and his two companions, former underworld heavy Beniamino Rossini and Max the Memory, are among Massimo Carlotto’s most vivid noir creations. Together, the three men will wade deep into a criminal world of few scruples, testing their own strict and specific moral code along the way. “The morally ambiguous tone makes this an intriguing read, and the suspense is well maintained.” —Manchester Evening News “A fascinating glimpse into Italian culture and justice system. It’s sparely written and though quite short, there’s a lot of action . . . dark and gritty.” —Euro Crime “[A] brilliant book.” —The Friendly Shelf


Out of Captivity

Out of Captivity

Author: Marc Gonsalves

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2009-02-24

Total Pages: 486

ISBN-13: 0061769525

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In "Out of Captivity, " Gonsalves, Stansell, and Howes recount for the first time their amazing tale of survival, friendship, and, ultimately, rescue, tracing their five and a half years as hostages of the FARC--a Colombian terrorist and Marxist rebel organization.


Infinite Country

Infinite Country

Author: Patricia Engel

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-03-02

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1982159480

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A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK and INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE 2021 NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD, LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL, A 2022 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE FINALIST, AND A NATIONAL ENDOWMENT OF THE ARTS “BIG READS” SELECTION “A profound, beautiful novel.” —People * “Poignant.” —BuzzFeed * “A breathtaking story of the unimaginable prices paid for a better life.” —Esquire This “heartbreaking portrait of a family dealing with the realities of migration and separation” (Time) is “a sweeping love story and tragic drama [and] an authentic vision of what the American Dream looks like in a nationalistic country” (Elle). I often wonder if we are living the wrong life in the wrong country. Talia is being held at a correctional facility for adolescent girls in the forested mountains of Colombia after committing an impulsive act of violence that may or may not have been warranted. She urgently needs to get out and get back home to Bogotá, where her father and a plane ticket to the United States are waiting for her. If she misses her flight, she might also miss her chance to finally be reunited with her family. How this family came to occupy two different countries, two different worlds, comes into focus like twists of a kaleidoscope. We see Talia’s parents, Mauro and Elena, fall in love in a market stall as teenagers against a backdrop of civil war and social unrest. We see them leave Bogotá with their firstborn, Karina, in pursuit of safety and opportunity in the United States on a temporary visa, and we see the births of two more children, Nando and Talia, on American soil. We witness the decisions and indecisions that lead to Mauro’s deportation and the family’s splintering—the costs they’ve all been living with ever since. Award-winning, internationally acclaimed author Patricia Engel, herself a dual citizen and the daughter of Colombian immigrants, gives voice to all five family members as they navigate the particulars of their respective circumstances. Rich with Bogotá urban life, steeped in Andean myth, and tense with the daily reality of the undocumented in America, Infinite Country “is as much an all-American story as it is a global one” (Booklist, starred review).


The Lucky Ones

The Lucky Ones

Author: Julianne Pachico

Publisher:

Published: 2018-02-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780571329809

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A haunting debut collection of stories from the extraordinarily talented new writer, Julianne Pachico.


Missionaries

Missionaries

Author: Phil Klay

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2020-10-06

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 1984880667

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One of President Obama's Favorite Books of the Year | A New York Times Notable Book | One of the Wall Street Journal Ten Best Books of the Year "Missionaries is a courageous book: It doesn’t shy away, as so much fiction does, from the real world.” —Juan Gabriel Vásquez, The New York Times Book Review “A sweeping, interconnected novel of ideas in the tradition of Joseph Conrad and Norman Mailer . . . By taking a long view of the ‘rational insanity’ of global warfare, Missionaries brilliantly fills one of the largest gaps in contemporary literature.” —The Wall Street Journal The debut novel from the National Book Award-winning author of Redeployment A group of Colombian soldiers prepares to raid a drug lord's safe house on the Venezuelan border. They're watching him with an American-made drone, about to strike using military tactics taught to them by U.S. soldiers who honed their skills to lethal perfection in Iraq. In Missionaries, Phil Klay examines the globalization of violence through the interlocking stories of four characters and the conflicts that define their lives. For Mason, a U.S. Army Special Forces medic, and Lisette, a foreign correspondent, America's long post-9/11 wars in the Middle East exerted a terrible draw that neither is able to shake. Where can such a person go next? All roads lead to Colombia, where the US has partnered with local government to keep predatory narco gangs at bay. Mason, now a liaison to the Colombian military, is ready for the good war, and Lisette is more than ready to cover it. Juan Pablo, a Colombian officer, must juggle managing the Americans' presence and navigating a viper's nest of factions bidding for power. Meanwhile, Abel, a lieutenant in a local militia, has lost almost everything in the seemingly endless carnage of his home province, where the lines between drug cartels, militias, and the state are semi-permeable. Drawing on six years of research in America and Colombia into the effects of the modern way of war on regular people, Klay has written a novel of extraordinary suspense infused with geopolitical sophistication and storytelling instincts that are second to none. Missionaries is a window not only into modern war, but into the individual lives that go on long after the drones have left the skies.