Disguised as a travel memoire “3 Seconds in Bogotá” explores the path that one’s live takes to bring us to a given second… or three.

The actual event, which makes for a funny if haunting tale in a friends-gathering, could be easily explained in a page length. But the actual 3 seconds are not the core of the tale, but much more the natural consequence of the course of action of a series of decisions taken along the way.

Mark Playne successfully weaves biographical events into a very entertaining adventure, gripping and haunting at times, eerily and whimsical at others, unexpected and somehow still not surprising, as every step taken along the way inevitably leads to the next.

The story is easy to read, a real fast-paced page-turner that keeps the reader on the end of the seat, wishing to reach the final conclusion and finally understand how all paths lead the main character to his actual predicament and of course 😊 and rooting for him to come out as unscathed as possible.

Mark Playne is a gifted storyteller, with the scare gift to weave seemingly unrelated (and underrated!) everyday occurrences into a very easy to read and entertaining narrative.

A must read for any reader who is looking for an original take on travel literature and as well as everyone who enjoys a very good tale 😉

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Katheyer - Good Reads

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2023

Beware the cultural assumptions we have based on where we grew up and do not inflict them on others while we’re traveling. Every country has its propaganda and we should be cautious in believing everything. Especially, when people in other parts of the world have the opposite experience of what we’ve been taught regarding our own nation’s foreign policies and politics.

The author delved into generational trauma of someone in the story. We may think that the choices we make are our business and our business only, but we need to realize that they have a far-reaching impact:
Father
‘One man’s infidelity set in motion a cascade of events – an avalanche of trauma that swept over the entire family.’
Son
‘Those whose wings are denied in the physical outer world, find other ways to fly … and the price for the momentary freedom of flight was a just few pesos a hit.’
Daughters
‘We were taught to dance like that when we were young girls. The older women told us that if we mastered the dances, we’d be able to hold [onto] our men.’

As someone who is mono-lingual through no fault of my own (I’ve spent many years attempting to learn French, German, Spanish, and Hebrew), I can TOTALLY relate to the author’s language mangling. I’ve heard some great stories of various faux pas and each one is a treasure. The author sprinkles his tales with pidgin Spanish and Portuguese as well as self-deprecating humor.

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TaniaRina

The format is as compelling as it is unusual.

The recording of time passing is clever as the reader is taking on a tour of South America.

Traveling from one marketing opportunity to another one gets to experience this trip as if you yourself were the street vendor.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and thought the ending extraordinary!

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TJ Brooks - Good Reads

What a brilliant book - I could not put it down and I don’t often say that about a book! The perfect mix of thriller, adventure and horror, mixing the fun and antics of the authors travels with the tension of a ‘millionaires taxi ride’ and then the true horror of what this world can be like (the last part is kind of optional if you don’t want to do the further reading - but I would recommend it). His style brings the South American countries to life and you can almost imagine you are there. Love, love, love it!

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Andrea - Good Reads