'The Shape of Ruins,' by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

From The Washington Post:

On the afternoon of April 9, 1948, an assassin drew a pistol on a downtown Bogota street and took the life of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, a charismatic, populist political icon who was one of the great South American orators of his time.

An enraged mob quickly formed, chasing down the presumed killer, a stonemason named Juan Roa Sierra, and yanking him into the street where he was pummeled to death. Hundreds, or by some estimates thousands, died in the riots that followed, a searing moment in Colombian history dubbed “El Bogotazo” that ushered in an era of extraordinary violence known as “La Violencia.”

read rest of review by Manuel Roig-Franzia @ Washington Post

Trash Man Creates Free Library Out of 20,000 Books Found in Garbage

For 20 years, Columbian rubbish-collector Jose Alberto Gutierrez has been holding to the books he finds while on his rounds in Bogota.

After two decades his collection totals more than 20,000 books - many of them thrown away by the people of the Colombian capital, now given a new life in the huge library Jose has amassed.

The Gutierrez's used to run children's reading sessions but, as more and more books come to the library - more through donations these days than through Jose's scavenging - they've run out of space to do that at home.

Instead, they're now concentrating on travelling around the country, delivering books to poor and remote districts where there's no public library.

read more here @ Good News Network