From the preface...
So much has happened in Colombia since Throwing Stones at the Moon was first published in 2012, and yet, for too many Colombians, so little has changed. Just a few weeks after the first edition left the printers, the government of Colombia announced it had begun peace talks with the country’s then-largest leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Hope, mixed with fear and well-founded skepticism, spread throughout the country.
While the peace process brought an overall decline in conflict-related violence, thousands of Colombians continued to flee their homes each year. By 2020, official tallies put the cumulative number of forcibly displaced Colombians since 1985 at over 8 million.
Most conflict victims have not seen justice. Both former guerrillas and members of the armed forces have given hundreds of hours of testimony about their war crimes. Yet four years after the peace deal, the government had failed to prosecute high-ranking military officials responsible for the army’s systematic murder of thousands of civilians. Top FARC commanders also had not been held to account for their role in atrocities.
Leonor Giraldo, one of the narrators in this book, reminds us that silencing weapons is just one part of finding peace. “We’re not hearing … the sound of gunshots, but the war hasn’t ended,” she said of her community of displaced people. The stories of Leonor and this book's other narrators speak both to the immense traumas Colombia must overcome, as well as the hope and strength of its people to achieve a real and lasting peace.
So much has happened in Colombia since Throwing Stones at the Moon was first published in 2012, and yet, for too many Colombians, so little has changed. Just a few weeks after the first edition left the printers, the government of Colombia announced it had begun peace talks with the country’s then-largest leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Hope, mixed with fear and well-founded skepticism, spread throughout the country.
While the peace process brought an overall decline in conflict-related violence, thousands of Colombians continued to flee their homes each year. By 2020, official tallies put the cumulative number of forcibly displaced Colombians since 1985 at over 8 million.
Most conflict victims have not seen justice. Both former guerrillas and members of the armed forces have given hundreds of hours of testimony about their war crimes. Yet four years after the peace deal, the government had failed to prosecute high-ranking military officials responsible for the army’s systematic murder of thousands of civilians. Top FARC commanders also had not been held to account for their role in atrocities.
Leonor Giraldo, one of the narrators in this book, reminds us that silencing weapons is just one part of finding peace. “We’re not hearing … the sound of gunshots, but the war hasn’t ended,” she said of her community of displaced people. The stories of Leonor and this book's other narrators speak both to the immense traumas Colombia must overcome, as well as the hope and strength of its people to achieve a real and lasting peace.
Reviews of the first edition
Here are the real and unforgettable voices of Colombia’s long nightmare. I read these tales with a knot in my stomach, frightened and moved, and finally amazed by this lesson: when people find the strength to tell us what has happened to them, no matter how horrendous, a terrible yet universal beauty somehow emerges, always casting light on the mystery of being human.” |
The truth about the endless violence that has driven four million Colombians from their homes is, beyond doubt, one of the greatest untold stories of our generation. We are indebted to Throwing Stones at the Moon for recording the courageous stories of survivors across this beautiful and deeply troubled country." |
Excerpts
- Read in GRANTA about MARÍA VICTORIA, a hospital union leader whose fight against corruption led to a brutal attempt on her life.
- Read in McSweeney's about ALFREDO ROMERO, a peasant displaced once by FARC rebels, another time by rightwing paramilitaries and then by guerrillas of the ELN after being shot and left for dead.
- See in UTNE Reader an excerpt from the introduction.
Interviews and talks
Talks at the 2013 Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts in Cartagena with Maria Teresa Ronderos and Patricia Lara in Medellin.
Q&A with Sibylla and Max by Stephen Ferry, photographer and author of Violentology, a Manual of the Colombian Conflict.
Interview in Spanish with UN Radio in Colombia.
Q&A with Sibylla and Max by Stephen Ferry, photographer and author of Violentology, a Manual of the Colombian Conflict.
Interview in Spanish with UN Radio in Colombia.
Order directly from Haymarket Books, or ask for it at your favorite independent bookstore.
