Magdalena: River of Dreams

(Knopf, $30)

Think of the Rio Magdalena as Colombia’s answer to the Mississippi, said The Economist. In his “often enchanting” new travelogue, author Wade Davis traces the 1,000-mile river by boat, on foot, by car, and on horseback to explain how it has defined a rich national culture and how it has sustained a land that’s arguably the world’s most bountiful and biologically diverse. “The author and his subject make a perfect match.” The Canadian-born Davis is an honorary Colombian citizen and a National Geographic explorer-inresidence who has been visiting Colombia since he was 14. He knows and loves the country deeply, and doesn’t shy from its grimmer chapters.

“There are maps in the book—and you will need them,” said Jenny Coad in The Times (U.K.). As Davis makes his stops along the

Magdalena from its southern source in the Andes all the way to the Caribbean Sea, it’s easy to lose your bearings. His lyricism, meanwhile, “at times goes too far,” as when he dips his hand in the water and invokes the creation of the universe. “His passion for Colombia is better expressed in the depth of information he delivers”—and in his descriptions of the extraordinary landscapes. Manatees glide beneath the surface of the river; its banks are home to 165 species of hummingbird. The people he meets also make lasting impressions, including a pioneering botanist and a magnetic tambora musician. I also won’t soon forget the men who, when Colombia’s long internal conflict reached its peak of violence two decades ago, defied the orders of paramilitary groups to fish countless bodies from the river and provide proper burials.

“Davis ends his voyage on a hopeful note,” said Jennie Erin Smith in The Wall Street Journal. Though the country’s 2016 peace agreement is faltering and decades of violence and mismanagement have left the Magdalena deeply polluted, Davis’ book “makes a compelling case” that the doomsayers won’t have the last word. “If a country’s spirit can be renewed through the grace and resilience of its people, he argues, so, too, can its river.”