Magdalena

Explorer, anthropologist, and author Wade Davis narrates this powerful appreciation of Colombia's most important river with sheer pleasure in his task. Xandra Uribe voices the occasional female in a pleasing Spanish accent, while Wade reads with Canadian pronunciations that take a little getting used to. But his numerous Spanish quotations sound authentic. He writes elegantly, and he is most eloquent in his retelling of folktales and profiling of the famous and infamous who fill this winning audiobook. Packed with local voices and stories, his text does not whitewash the decades of violence that this often politically divided country has withstood. From Simon Bolivar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Spanish conquistadors, and cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar--those featured are well described in this enjoyable audiobook. A.D.M. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine