To many foreigners, Colombia is a nightmare of drugs and violence. Yet normal life goes on there, and, in Bogota, it's even possible to forget that war still ravages the countryside. This paradox of perceptions--outsiders' fears versus insiders' realities--drew June Carolyn Erlick back to Bogota for a year's stay in 2005. She wanted to understand how the city she first came to love in 1975 has made such strides toward building a peaceful civil society in the midst of ongoing violence. The complex reality she found comes to life in this compelling memoir.

Erlick creates her portrait...