Colombia's Finest

News of a Kidnapping - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
For want of some inspiration I scrolled down through the list of Nobel Prize winners and picked another with whom I'm familiar. It should be noted that I happen to like Marquez's style (or his translator's style) very much and have read several of his books. As Colombia's sole representative on the list of Nobel Prize winners (for literature at least) his overwhelming popularity and recognition give him a marginally safe existence around his home in Bogota. However, this non-fiction work could certainly have put him in a fair bit of danger as it is filled with a good deal of criticism and coverage of the many kidnappings committed by the legion of revolutionaries, cartels and guerrillas vying for power in Colombia in the last 2 decades. This is probably not a good book to read if you have any plans to visit Colombia in the near future, although I am sure things are much better now.
Rating: B
Related:
Killing Pablo - Mark Bowden
movie: Four Days in September (it's a Brazilian movie, A+)