Every Day the River Changes

Starred review from August 9, 2021
Journalist Salama debuts with a mesmerizing travelogue spanning four weeks on different stretches of Colombia’s Magdalena River. When Salama first traveled to Colombia as a college freshman in 2016, he was frequently told the Magdalena—which flows through the heart of the country, from the Andes Mountains to the Caribbean Sea—was “a place you must not miss.” So in 2018, as part of his senior thesis for Princeton University, Salama set out to tour the 950 miles of river—traversing “mountains, jungles, plains, and swamplands”—in an effort to capture its complicated history. Among the memorable experiences he depicts is staying at one of “Colombia’s grandest hotels” the night before it permanently closed, embarking on a hunt for invasive hippos with local biologists, and befriending a former schoolteacher who delivers books, via donkey, to local children. Through keen reporting, he unpacks how “the ever-shifting fortunes of the Colombian people have long mirrored the rise and fall of their country’s greatest river”—from the river’s booming “golden age” in the 1940s to its ecological ruin and the violence of guerrilla war that plagued subsequent decades. Both complex and achingly beautiful, this outstanding account brims with humanity. Agent: Andrew Blauner, Blauner Books.

October 1, 2021

American journalist Salama has written a travelogue about Colombia's R�o Magdalena, based on his journey down the river to research his undergraduate thesis. His account takes readers on an engaging ride through the heart of Colombia, with close-up views of the people, culture, and changing landscapes along the Magdalena. His month-long voyage began at 11,000 feet in the Andes, at the river's source in Colombia's Huila Department; wove through mountains, jungles, and plains; and ended in Barranquilla, where the Magdalena empties into the Caribbean Sea. Salama's narrative integrates Colombian history and mythology that he learned from locals, as well as the current reality of a country torn by struggle. A good companion to Magdalena: River of Dreams, by Wade Davis. VERDICT This enchanting travelogue will appeal to readers with a love of South America, as well as those interested in a good travel adventure, wherever it leads.--Holly Hebert, Middle Tennessee State Univ., Murfreesboro

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September 15, 2021
Associations with drug trafficking and paramilitary warfare led many people to caution author Salama against taking an internship in Colombia with the Wildlife Conservation Society after his freshman year at Princeton. Yet when he spent the summer there, he encountered a complex, dynamic place that had more than violence to offer. In 2018, he traveled the length of the Magdalena River, which is central to much of Colombia's history. 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. Among the people he meets are a teacher who carries a library on the backs of two donkeys to give children the chance to read at home, a jeweler who crafts silver flowers for luxury travelers who no longer visit, and the captain of the last remaining passenger boat on the river. Salama's insightful observations leave readers with a deep and nuanced look at Colombia.

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Starred review from September 15, 2021
A Colombian journey downriver, into the soul of a country. In 2018, Salama, then an undergraduate at Princeton, determined to travel as much as possible of the 950-mile length of the Magdalena River, from its source in the Andean highlands to the Caribbean coast. The river was an epicenter of the Colombian armed conflict among Marxist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, and outlaw groups that claimed 260,000 lives and displaced countless others over the course of 60 years. It is also the nation's heartbeat, albeit scarred by decades of continuing environmental degradation, and it is central to the history of Colombia and much of South America. The author was born and raised in suburban New York, the son of a Syrian Argentine father and an Iraqi mother, doctors and scientists both, who moved to the U.S. and flourished, instilling in him a sense of adventure. 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. We meet craftsmen, artisans, folklorists, boat-builders, subsistence fishermen, and one astonishingly devoted teacher, among others, chiefly in rural settings. Without fail, Salama finds what is interesting, sometimes noble, in each of them. Yet his regard for those he encounters never slips into sentiment or romanticism. "Traveling in this way," he writes, "and trading in stories, is, inevitably, a journey of selection--it was not lost on me that for each voice I heard, many others would be left out." The book is more than a notable achievement in travel literature and more than a clarifying window into a misunderstood culture; it is a book of conscience and open-heartedness. Pair it with Wade Davis' Magdalena (2020). It is a privilege to savor, if vicariously, this harvest of a promising writer's vivid journeys.

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