For nearly five decades, Colombia has been embroiled in internal armed conflict among guerrilla groups, paramilitary militias, and the country’s own military. Civilians in Colombia have to make their lives despite the threat of torture, kidnapping, and large-scale massacres—and more than four million have had to flee their homes. The oral histories in Throwing Stones at the Moon describe the most widespread of Colombia’s human rights crises: forced displacement. Speakers recount life before displacement, the reasons for their flight, and their struggle to rebuild their lives. Among the narrators: JULIA, a hospital union leader whose fight against corruption led to a brutal attempt on her life. In 2009, assassins tracked her to her home and stabbed her seven times in the face and chest. Since the attack, Julia has undergone eight facial reconstructive surgeries, and continues to live in hiding. DANNY, who at eighteen joined a right-wing paramilitary’s enormous training camp in the Eastern Plains of Colombia. Initially lured by the promise of quick money, Danny soon realized his mistake and escaped to Ecuador. He describes his harrowing escape and his struggle to survive as a refugee with two young children to support.

Moon Travel Guides: Make Your Escape Colonial architecture and ancient ruins, romantic plazas and golden beaches: Colombia's Caribbean coastline offers relaxation and adventure in equal measure. Dive right in with Moon Cartagena & Colombia's Caribbean Coast. Easy-to-use itineraries, with week-long trip suggestions tailored for adventurers, nature-lovers, beach bums, history buffs, and more Honest advice from local expat Andrew Dier on his adopted home country Activities and unique ideas for every traveler: Take a tour of Cartagena's historic central district and admire the vivid bougainvillea cascading from the balconies of colonial mansions. Dance to the sounds of salsa and champeta, or walk along the Old City's fortifications at sunset. Hike lush, forested mountains and watch for flashes of colorful feathers. Climb over a thousand stone steps through the cloud forest to an ancient lost city. Visit organic coffee and cocoa farms or relax in a beachside cabaña at an ecofriendly hotel. Recommendations on outdoor recreation, including the best beaches for diving, snorkeling, and kitesurfing Suggestions for social impact tourism, from staying in a community guesthouse to visiting wildlife preserves Strategic tips for making the multiday trek to Ciudad Perdida, the ruins of the ancient Tayrona civilization Full-color photos and detailed maps and directions for exploring on your own Background information on the landscape, history, government, and culture, including a handy Spanish phrasebook Essential insight for travelers on health and safety, recreation, transportation, and accommodations, packaged in a book light enough to fit in your beach bag With Moon Cartagena & Colombia's Caribbean Coast's practical tips, myriad activities, and local insight, you can plan your trip your way. Gotta see more of this beautiful country? Check out Moon Colombia. Expanding your trip? Try Moon Peru.

Moon Travel Guides: Your World, Your Way Lush mountains, gorgeous haciendas, and perfect weather: explore Colombia's coffee country with Moon Medellín. Strategic plans for your trip with an adaptable week-long itinerary of the best of Medellín, a walking tour of the city, and highlights of the coffee region Curated advice from local writer Andrew Dier, who provides his American-expat perspective on his adopted country Full color maps and photos to help you explore on your own Activities for every traveler: Taste your way through nouvelle Colombian cuisine and dance the night away to salsa and cumbia music. Wander through the mountainside Biblioteca España, ride a gondola into the verdant Parque Arví, or travel back in time at the Museo de Antioquia. Explore fragrant coffee plantations and the colorful pueblos of Jardín, Jericó, Salamina, and Salento, or hike through lush tropical forests and rugged mountain trails Current background information on the landscape, culture, history, and environment, plus a handy Spanish phrasebook, all packaged in a book light enough to fit in your carry-on Essential insight for travelers on trekking through jungles, accessing remote mountain ranges, and exploring ancient ruins, with tips for traveling safely and respectfully engaging with the local culture With Moon Medellín's practical tips, myriad activities, and an insider's view, you can plan your trip your way. Expanding your trip? Try Moon Colombia. Country-hopping in South America? Check out Moon Peru or Moon Ecuador & the Galápagos Islands.

In this anthology, Vietnamese writers describe their experience of what they call the American War and its lasting legacy through the lens of their own vital artistic visions. A North Vietnamese soldier forms a bond with an abandoned puppy. Cousins find their lives upended by the revelation that their fathers fought on opposite sides of the war. Two lonely veterans in Hanoi meet years after the war has ended through a newspaper dating service. A psychic assists the search for the body of a long-vanished soldier. The father of a girl suffering from dioxin poisoning struggles with corrupt local officials. The twenty short stories collected in Other Moons range from the intensely personal to narratives that deal with larger questions of remembrance, trauma, and healing. By a diverse set of authors, including many veterans, they span styles from social realism to tales of the fantastic. Yet whether describing the effects of Agent Orange exposure or telling ghost stories, all speak to the unresolved legacy of a conflict that still haunts Vietnam. Among the most widely anthologized and popular pieces of short fiction about the war in Vietnam, these works appear here for the first time in English. Other Moons offers Anglophone audiences an unparalleled opportunity to experience how the Vietnamese think and write about the conflict that consumed their country from 1954 to 1975—a perspective still largely missing from American narratives.

A fantastical novel about power and subservience by the great Evelio Rosero, winner of Colombia’s National Literature Prize The renowned Colombian writer Evelio Rosero has never been one to shy away from the darker aspects of his nation’s history and society. His magnificent novel Stranger to the Moon portrays a world that seems to exist outside time and place but taps into the dark myths and collective subconscious of his country, with its harrowing inequality and violence. A parable of pointed social criticism, with naked humans imprisoned in a house in order to serve the needs of “the vicious clothed ones,” the novel describes what ensues when a single “naked one” privately rebels, risking his own death and that of his fellow prisoners. Each subsequent section of the book adds further layers to the ritualistic and bizarre social order inhabited by its characters. Insects and reptiles are trained as agents and spies against the naked ones, and only the most fortunate humans manage to reach old age by taking up strategic spots near the kitchens and grabbing for the fiercely contested food. Stranger to the Moon is a brave, powerful, and distinctive novel by a writer who arguably holds the strongest claim to the title of Colombia’s greatest living author.

This study examines and illuminates how the lives of Korean prostitutes in the 1970s served as the invisible underpinnings to US-Korean military policies at the highest level.

The Kogi Indians of the Sierra Nevada, an isolated mountain massif of northern Colombia, have preserved much of their cultural heritage, notwithstanding the onslaught of outside influences. To the casual observer their austere and withdrawn way of life presents a picture of abject poverty but long-term ethnological study reveals dimensions of inner depth which are evidence of a very rich and cherished tradition going back to pre-Conquest times. Kogi cosmogony and cosmology, their religious philosophy, and their interpretation of nature, as described by men of priestly training, bear witness to a creative imagination of great power. This study tells us of their macrocosm and microcosm; the structure of the universe and the spinning of cotton thread; time-space concepts and the symbolism of a small gourd vessel; biological cycles and temple architecture, and all this within the compass of a sacred mountain which to the Kogi is the centre of the universe. The ethnological importance of this essay is equalled by its value to the Humanities, and opens a new dimension of Amerindian studies.