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News of a Kidnapping (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
 
 
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News of a Kidnapping (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) (Paperback)

by Gabriel García Márquez (Author), Edith Grossman (Translator) "SHE LOOKED OVER her shoulder before getting into the car to be sure no one was following her..." (more)
Key Phrases: Pablo Escobar, Guido Parra, Constituent Assembly (more...)
4.3 out of 5 stars  (31 customer reviews)


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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
During the 1980s, the government of Colombia signed a treaty with the United States allowing for the extradition of Colombian citizens. This caused a great deal of distress among the kingpins of the Medellín drug cartel. Why? Traffickers like Pablo Escobar had spent the decade exporting billions of dollars' worth of cocaine. They weren't likely to be arrested at home, but if extradited and tried in America, they would spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Escobar and his colleagues tried to a cut a deal with the government. Then Escobar decided that a little extralegal pressure--i.e., terrorism--could do no harm. In short order he had 10 prominent Colombians kidnapped; most were journalists, and all had professional or personal ties to the pro-extradition movement. Ultimately two of the hostages were shot. The remaining eight were released in a trickle, as the drug traffickers began to break ranks and surrender. So ended at least one episode in what Gabriel García Márquez calls "the biblical holocaust that has been consuming Colombia for more than twenty years."

García Márquez was originally invited to write about the kidnapping by Maruja Pachon, who spent six months in captivity. As he began to write, however, he realized that her story was inseparable from that of the other nine victims. The result is a meticulous, sobering, and suspenseful book. It is, of course, a work of reportage, which puts a lid on the author's penchant for magic realism. But in the hands of a writer like García Márquez, truth makes fiction look paltry indeed. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Garcia Marquez, Latin America's Nobel prize-winning novelist, turns his hand for the first time to nonfiction to explain, through one individual's experience, the widespread kidnapping in Colombia. Although focusing on Maruja Pachon's six months in captivity and her prominent husband's efforts to obtain her release, the book is really about the 1990 abduction of ten individuals by drug traffickers hoping to prevent their extradition to the United States. As he does so memorably in his fiction, the author captures the political intricacies and strange, deep involvement of drug dealers in Colombian life, turning what as easily could have been an imagined story into a fascinating exploration of contemporary culture, politics, and drug lords. Highly recommended.?Roderic A. Camp, Latin American Ctr., Tulane Univ., New Orleans
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details
  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0140269444
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140269444
  • Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  (31 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #644,537 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #48 in  Books > History > Americas > South America > Colombia

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  • Also Available in: Hardcover  |  Paperback  |  All Editions