Ramón Chao's chronicle of the infamous rock and roll tour through Colombia on The Train of Ice and Fire in 1993.

"Maybe it was the best adventure I ever had." – Manu Chao

Colombia, November 1993: a reconstructed old passenger train, bespangled with yellow butterflies, is carrying one hundred musicians, acrobats and artists on a daring adventure through the heart of a country soaked in violence. The intention is to put on free shows for locals at railway stations along the way: vibrant spectacles involving music, trapeze, tattoo-art, an ice museum and, star of the show, Roberto the fire-breathing dragon. Leading this crusade of hope is Manu Chao with his band Mano Negra.

Ramón Chao is on board to chronicle the journey. As the train climbs 1,000 kilometres from Santa Marta on the Caribbean Coast to Bogota in the Altiplano, Ramon keeps one eye on the fluctuating morale of the train’s eccentric cargo, and the other on the ever-changing physical and social landscape. As the papa of the train, he endures personal discomfort, internal strife, derailments, stowaways, disease, guerrillas and paramilitaries. When the train arrives in Aracataca, the real-life Macondo of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Mano Negra disintegrates, leaving Manu to pick up the pieces with those determined to see this once-in-a-lifetime adventure through to the end.

The Train of Ice and Fire is a book about hope and dreams in troubled times. It is about a father accompanying his son through an experience which will change his life. But most of all it is about Colombia, the flora, the fauna, the history, the politics and, more than any of that, it is a book about people.

Foreword by Ignacio Ramonet.

Translated by Ann Wright.

"The real joy is in the detail, be it Chao Senior overheating in a polar bear costume until he loses consciousness or going so native that he gets himself tattooed as his son tuts disapprovingly. By the end you’re rooting for the cast of dysentery ridden, ceaselessly optimistic ne’er-do-wells and entranced by the madness of their undertaking."
Q Magazine

"Few musicians would allow a journalist to accompany their band through one of the world's most dangerous countries. Even fewer, one suspects, would be happy about that journalist being their father. But Manu Chao is not just any musician, and his father, Ramon... is not just any journalist… For Manu's growing army of admirers, the book provides a magical-realist insight into how his music has developed."
The Guardian

Ramón Chao (born 1935 in Vilalba, Lugo) is a Galician writer who emigrated to France in 1956. He was chief editor for the Latin American service of Radio France Internationale, and wrote for for Le Monde and Le Monde diplomatique. In 1984 he created the Prix Juan Rulfo award for new Spanish language writers. He is the father of singer Manu Chao and radio maker Antoine Chao.

Ann Wright has translated fourteen books from Spanish and French including The Motorcycle Diaries, The Fragrance of Guava and I, Rigoberta Menchu. She is an active human rights worker and lectures on the theory and practice of civilian protection. She lives in London.