One of the most moving descriptions is of the town of Puerto Berrío where 'people go to the cemetery to visit the tombs of people they have never met'.

The encounters are brief: Salama travels quickly, rarely spending more than a few days in each place. The result is a series of vignettes of everyday life along the river, described with great energy and warmth. The book’s most moving and memorable scenes, however, come when Salama stays somewhere long enough to form friendships—to slot into the rhythms of riverside existence.

In his debut travelogue, Salama tells the stories of the people who live along the Magdalena. Throughout each chapter, he shows how Colombia is continuing to struggle with the ongoing impact of its half-century of war and the environmental fallout of industrialization.

A mesmerizing travelogue.

Venturing by boat and overland, Salama witnessed 'a country that defied common evocations,' proving himself a fine reporter and arbiter of history, attentive to nuance as well as detail, and a keen observer of flora and fauna. Salama’s account is by turns joyous and sad.