"A deeply reported account of drug trafficking that traces a kilo of cocaine from field to smuggler." — USA Today
"Journalist Muse’s beautifully written debut takes a deep dive into the Colombian drug trade…At great personal risk, the author interviewed Colombians involved in the trade—dealers, prostitutes, and sicarios (the paid assassins who keep the law of the drug trade); their intimate stories form the heart of the book…This gripping account will linger in the mind of readers." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Like other daring foreign correspondents, Sebastian Junger and Chris Hedges among them, Muse has a talent for recognizing the intrinsic humanity in all his subjects, no matter how monstrously they may behave. . . . An unrelentingly tragic yet indispensable exposé of the never-ending war on drugs.” — Kirkus Reviews
"Kilo is surely the best account of the cocaine trade that will be ever be written, as well as the most incredible work of investigative journalism I’ve read. It’s a high-stakes yarn that shows each step of the drug ladder in vivid detail—from creation to consumption. A superb and important book." — Ben Westhoff, author of Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic
"In this riveting first-hand account that reads like a documentary, Toby Muse goes beyond stereotypical crutches and achieves an honest and nuanced portrait of Colombia’s cancerous cocaine industry, revealing not just the stakes but the human toll behind every line of cocaine. Kilo will prove enlightening even to those who lived firsthand the horrors of the country’s civil war." — Juanita Ceballos, Vice News
"Toby Muse’s tautly written account of his intimate prowl through Colombia’s narco world is both compelling and unforgettable. With Kilo, cocaine now has its own Dispatches. Simply kickass.” — Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker and author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life
"A hair-raising, stream-of-consciousness ride via the glamor and glory of silicone busts, gold-plated guns, and fast cars to the inevitable wreckage that is cocaine." — Karl Penhaul, former CNN correspondent for Colombia
In Kilo, Toby Muse teleports the reader into the mad bloody tragic world of Colombian cocaine trafficking, so you can feel the beats at the discos packed with drug lords and beauty queens; smell the sweat of laborers toiling in the coca fields for a pittance; hear the dog of the gun slinger barking in the barrio. In doing so, he pens a love letter to one of the most beautiful and bloodiest countries on earth. — Ioan Grillo, author of El Narco and Blood Gun Money
"In fifteen years covering Colombia, this is the best book I’ve ever read about the cocaine trade. If you want to understand why the drugs are produced here, then how they get to the U.S., there’s no better guide." — Matthew Bristow, former Colombia bureau chief, Bloomberg News
"From Venezuelan coca pickers in Colombia’s badlands to Ecuadorian sailors plying the Pacific with tons of cocaine, Kilo explores the trenches of the drug trade like few other books. Muse has produced a must-read for those trying to understand Latin America, Washington foreign policy and why decades of bloodshed and billions of dollars haven’t won the war on drugs." — Jim Wyss, Miami Herald reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner
"Toby Muse’s firsthand dive into the depths of Colombia’s coca-filled jungles is as tragic and absurd as the decades-old drug war itself." — Joshua Goodman, Latin America correspondent for the Associated Press
"The result is a staggering work of reportage and social analysis. Muse is an experienced war journalist and for Kilo, he put himself into many dangerous situations to get incredible access to the narco-subcultures so few have witnessed." — CrimeReads
"In this riveting first-hand account that reads like a documentary, Toby Muse goes beyond stereotypical crutches and achieves an honest and nuanced portrait of Colombia’s cancerous cocaine industry, revealing not just the stakes but the human toll behind every line of cocaine. Kilo will prove enlightening even to those who lived firsthand the horrors of the country’s civil war."
"A deeply reported account of drug trafficking that traces a kilo of cocaine from field to smuggler."
In Kilo, Toby Muse teleports the reader into the mad bloody tragic world of Colombian cocaine trafficking, so you can feel the beats at the discos packed with drug lords and beauty queens; smell the sweat of laborers toiling in the coca fields for a pittance; hear the dog of the gun slinger barking in the barrio. In doing so, he pens a love letter to one of the most beautiful and bloodiest countries on earth.
"In fifteen years covering Colombia, this is the best book I’ve ever read about the cocaine trade. If you want to understand why the drugs are produced here, then how they get to the U.S., there’s no better guide."
"A deeply reported account of drug trafficking that traces a kilo of cocaine from field to smuggler."
★ 03/23/2020
Journalist Muse’s beautifully written debut takes a deep dive into the Colombian drug trade. In fascinating detail, Muse describes how leaves harvested from the coca fields in the nation’s mountains and jungles go to rustic labs, where workers produce coca paste. Then it’s on to the narco-militias, who turn the paste into bricks of cocaine and sell them to drug traffickers in Medellín. Distribution efforts involve shipping massive amounts of cocaine via drug mules via airplanes, as well as speed boats and semi-subs that play nautical cat-and-mouse with the U.S. Coast Guard. At great personal risk, the author interviewed Colombians involved in the trade—dealers, prostitutes, and sicarios (the paid assassins who keep the law of the drug trade); their intimate stories form the heart of the book. A young Medellín coke trafficker, Alex, is surprisingly open about his life of crime, and while he’s far from sympathetic, readers will feel sad when he’s gunned down at a birthday party in front of his fiancé. In the bleak epilogue, Muse offers hope, but sees no end to the “forever war on drugs.” This gripping account will linger in the mind of readers. Agent: Ethan Bassoff, Ross Yoon Literary. (Mar.)
"From Venezuelan coca pickers in Colombia’s badlands to Ecuadorian sailors plying the Pacific with tons of cocaine, Kilo explores the trenches of the drug trade like few other books. Muse has produced a must-read for those trying to understand Latin America, Washington foreign policy and why decades of bloodshed and billions of dollars haven’t won the war on drugs."
"A hair-raising, stream-of-consciousness ride via the glamor and glory of silicone busts, gold-plated guns, and fast cars to the inevitable wreckage that is cocaine."
"Kilo is surely the best account of the cocaine trade that will be ever be written, as well as the most incredible work of investigative journalism I’ve read. It’s a high-stakes yarn that shows each step of the drug ladder in vivid detail—from creation to consumption. A superb and important book."
"Toby Muse’s tautly written account of his intimate prowl through Colombia’s narco world is both compelling and unforgettable. With Kilo, cocaine now has its own Dispatches. Simply kickass.
"The result is a staggering work of reportage and social analysis. Muse is an experienced war journalist and for Kilo, he put himself into many dangerous situations to get incredible access to the narco-subcultures so few have witnessed."
"Toby Muse’s firsthand dive into the depths of Colombia’s coca-filled jungles is as tragic and absurd as the decades-old drug war itself."
2020-02-18
Cocaine darkens the souls of all it touches in a foreign correspondent’s chilling eyewitness account of the barbarous world of Colombian drug trafficking.
In September 2016, after a ghastly civil war that claimed the lives of some 200,000 people, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reached a groundbreaking peace accord that promised to usher in a new era of prosperity for the bloodied and beleaguered South American nation. Sadly, those hopes were almost immediately extinguished as warring narcomilitias unleashed a fresh round of chaos—all created around the production and distribution of cocaine. Muse, a British American writer who has also reported from Iraq and Syria, was there for much of the bloodletting. Based in Bogotà for 15 years, he spent countless hours among hard-pressed coca farmers, downtrodden coca pickers, impoverished gang members, and numerous other players caught up in Colombia’s unending cycle of money and death. “Cocaine is capitalism, stripped of any veneer of respectability,” writes the author. “It’s the law of the market wrapped in blood and claws.” Like other daring foreign correspondents, Sebastian Junger and Chris Hedges among them, Muse has a talent for recognizing the intrinsic humanity in all his subjects, no matter how monstrously they may behave. Along the way, he chronicles his interactions with a dead-eyed sicario who prays tenderly to the Virgin Mary before every assignment and a ruthless Medellin drug trafficker who fantasizes about quitting the game and settling into domestic bliss. Noone in the kingdom of cocaine—not those responsible for producing the drug, nor those charged with shutting them down—can ever truly hope to escape unscathed, however.Each kilo may come at a cost too high to bear, but Muse clearly shows that there will always be those willing to pay with their lives.
An unrelentingly tragic yet indispensable exposé of the never-ending war on drugs.
