The book starts off with a glowing account of the airline’s creation, almost superlative in its description of the personalities involved. However, in the second half the book takes a frank and candid tone when approaching the airline’s growing pains, internal conflict among the founders & investors, missteps, lost battles, and public relations “chicharrones” as they say in Spanish.

While the first half of the book introduces us to the founders and initial investors, the second half gets more serious taking us behind closed doors as the airline metamorphosed from a scrappy startup with 5 aircraft to a well-run enterprise with “adults at the yoke” like current CEO & former LatAm executive Felix Antelo, that continues in growth mode with over 30 new Airbus A320neo aircraft on order and new routes while competitors are mired in bankruptcy.

The book contains a few minor typos that are forgivable for a first edition, and as someone familiar with the subject matter, I would take issue with the author’s description of the bus service in Colombia. While it is true that Viva Air is now in many cases even less expensive (and certainly faster and safer) than bus travel, the major new bus lines for some years now have issued assigned seating in modern motor coaches with bathrooms and onboard Wi-Fi.

On the other hand, I admire the author’s candid recounts of the airline’s early struggles and bootstrap mentality. Safety was never compromised, but the airline struggled at first with e-commerce, reservation systems, and messaging. They eventually got their act together, but fortuitously for the protagonist, it happened simultaneous with the operational meltdown of their main competitor.

I highly recommend this book if you are interested in Colombia, Commercial Aviation (especially the new low-cost model pioneered by Ryanair & Southwest), entrepreneurship—especially outside of the tech/software sector, and even corporate finance. It is a fun but informative read, written in a frank but irreverent style that matches the airline itself.

This year’s convention will feature several programs, including FILBo Gourmet, with various internationally renowned chefs such as Mexico’s José Ramón Castillo, Argentina’s Juliana López May, and Colombia’s own Leonor Espinoza demonstrating recipes from their cookbooks. FILBO en Familia, on the weekends, will host family-friendly events geared towards getting children into literature and families to read together. Recitals, concerts, and workshops are included on the agenda.

The book fair roughly coincides with the first anniversary of the death of Garcia Marquez, the 17^th of April last year, and will be accompanied by academic programs including experts in Gabo’s writing such as Fan Ye, who translated the author’s works into Mandarin, biographers Dasso Saldivar and Gerald Martin, from the University of Texas in Austin, and several editors.

Above photo: Dr. Enrique González Villa – President of Cámara Colombiana del Libro speaking at the 2015 FILBo Thought Leaders Luncheon

This year’s expert committee in charge of the academic and cultural programming of FILBo 2015 consists of Guiomar Acevedo and Consuelo Gaitán, of the Colombian Ministry of Culture; Valentín Ortíz and Victor Manuel Rodriguez, from Bogotá’s office of Culture, Recreation and Sport; and Diana Rey and Adriana Martinez from the Cámara Colombiana del Libro, Colombia’s literature promotion organization.

Integral to this year’s book fair will be the VII Encuentro Internacional de Periodismo, or journalist’s meeting, that will host various journalists and specialists to discuss Gabo’s early work as a journalist, leading him to quip once, “Even though they suffer like dogs, there is no better avocation than journalism.”

The event also will feature and recognize female authors from around the world, including writers from as far away as Ukraine, Spain, and Iran.