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Colombian kidnapping novel has Creston roots

Nelson Daily Staff
By Nelson Daily Staff
November 29th, 2010

Author reading at Nelson Library

Tuesday, Nov. 30, 7:30 p.m.

It’s a story any writer would love to wrap their keyboard around.

And although Creston author Tanna Patterson-Z had a personal connection with the story of the Colombian kidnapping of diamond driller and Creston native Ed Leonard (through Leonard’s wife, Trollee), she first contacted adventure author Jon Krakauer as the best person for the job.

The personal phone call she received back was clear: great story, but Krakauer had no time to write it.

So Patterson-Z did. Six years later, she’s embarking on a tour to promote Butterflies in Bucaramanga (published this fall by NeWest Press), and will be at the Nelson Library Tuesday, Nov. 30.

A fictionalized account of the 1998 105-day kidnapping of Leonard by Colombian guerrillas, Butterflies in Bucaramanga guides readers deep into the physical and political terrain of a beautiful but dangerous country that remains off-limits to the casual traveler.

At once a suspense thriller and an engrossing work of journalism, this is a story of a man who gets caught in the collision between Western corporate imperatives and revolutionary politics — and whose unlikely obsession with the beautiful blue Morpho butterfly proves key to his survival.

The author’s inaugural Kootenay tour includes Creston, Cranbrook, Kimberley, Trail, Rossland, and Nelson. The Nelson Library reading begins at 7:30 p.m.

Categories: Arts and Culture

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