"Visceral reporting of Colombia drug gang trauma by a committed journalist." --Kirkus Reviews ". writes with courage, deep insight and empathy about an important global human rights issue. The stories of Colombians are reconstructed here with delicacy, assurance and candor, and paint an intimate and detailed portrait of the author's homeland. The child soldier Leonor will not be forgotten." --Jeffery Renard Allen, author of the novels Song of the Shank, Rails Under My Back, Holding Pattern, Stellar Places, and Harbors & Spirits ". marvelous voyage of personal self-discovery provides the backdrop for a heartbreaking and vivid portrait of children caught between terrorism and growing up. This is an ingenious combination of memoir and commentary, a compelling firsthand account of the greed, social neglect, and deliberate misrule that has forced many Latin American children and families to seek a better life in the arms of terrorist groups.

" --Ernesto Quiñonez, author of the novels Bodega Dreams, Chango's Fire, and Taina: A Novel " . incredibly well-researched memoir is a brave and devastating investigation of the decades of violence that have torn apart Colombia. [.] looks with unflinching grace at heart-breaking, complicated stories of trauma and survival, beginning with the story of the child soldier Leonor. But this is also a deeply personal memoir. [.] writes about how her family--involved since the nineteenth century with politics in Colombia--suffers from and is implicated in the violence. [.

] spares no one and condemns no one, writing about the country and the people she loves with honesty, grit and generosity. I couldn't put this book down." --Luis Jaramillo, author of the novel The Doctor's Wife.