Set in Bogota, Colombia, the book narrates the kidnapping of a group of elderly women held hostage by Pablo Escobar's ruthless Medellin cartel. Intense personal suffering and psychological drama are set against the backdrop of a chaotic and corruptpolitical scene. The result is a highly charged story of lives in the balance. This brave piece of reportage is every bit as engaging as Marquez's fiction. 'I have never read anything which gave me a better sense of the way Colombia was in its worst times' - John Simpson in the Daily Telegraph