Rusty Young: Colombiano
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In-Conversation
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Access Podcast HERE
Join us for the book launch of Colombiano written by Australian born author and journalist Rusty Young. Blending fact and fiction, Colombiano takes us on a heart-thumping journey into the violent and unpredictable world of post-Escobar Colombia.
Rusty Young, author of the international bestseller Marching Powder, lived and worked in Colombia, interviewing special forces soldiers, snipers, undercover intelligence agents and members of two vicious terrorist organisations – the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army ) and Autodefensas (self-defenders).
During this time he was both shocked and touched by the stories of child soldiers he encountered. He vowed to one day turn their challenging life stories into a book and let their voices be heard.
Colombiano is an epic tale of rural villages held to ransom, of jungle drug labs, cocaine supermarkets, witch doctors and buried millions, of innocent teenage love, barbaric torture and meticulously planned revenge. Superbly told and by turns gripping, poignant and darkly comic, Colombiano is the remarkable story of a boy whose moral descent becomes a metaphor for the corruption of an entire nation.
Both blockbuster thriller and electrifying coming-of-age story, Rusty Young’s powerful novel is also a meditation on the redeeming power of love.
Rusty Young
Rusty Young is the author of the international bestseller Marching Powder, the true story of an English drug smuggler in Bolivia’s notorious San Pedro Prison.
He grew up in Sydney, and studied Finance and Law at the University of New South Wales. However, following the global success of Marching Powder
he settled in Bogotá, Colombia for seven years.
Since 2011, Rusty’s house in Bogotá has been the headquarters for a local charity that supports former child soldiers exiting the civil war, teaching them valuable life skills.
Colombiano is his first novel.
More information
Rusty Young, Wildlands: Tales from the Front Line of the Cocaine Trade
Report: Colombian Children's Foundation, Annual Review 2013/14 (11 MB)
Drug trafficker's life to become a major film
Bolivian Prison Marching Powder by Rusty Young
Come inside the craziest prison in the world
Julia Lester
Rusty will be in-conversation with Julia Lester. Julia has worked as a Radio Broadcaster and Producer, TV Current Affairs Reporter, Public Speaker, MC of events concerts and conferences, Interviewer, News Journalist, Teacher, Actor and Musician.
Her interests and areas of knowledge are broad, including politics, music, visual art, literature, ideas, religion, and philosophy. For pleasure she reads widely, performs composes and consumes music, gardens, walks and camps in the bush, travels, visits galleries, has long conversations in cafes trying to work out how the world works. She’s still trying.
Julia was born in Melbourne, grew up in Adelaide, studied Music, Politics and Education at the University of Adelaide and the University of New England.
After a career in teaching secondary school music and drama, Julia then embraced the media. She initially worked as a journalist in commercial radio and TV.
In 1985 Julia joined the ABC where she stayed, with a few breaks, for 30 years. During that time, she worked as a Journalist and Presenter in TV and Radio across many areas: interviewer and documentary-maker with ABC Radio National, 7.30 Report reporter, live talk host on 891 ABC Adelaide, Presenter of Classic Drive with ABC Classic FM until her retirement in 2015.
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Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre and Matilda Bookshop
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