THIS ASTONISHING BOOK by the Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez chronicles the 1990 kidnappings of ten Colombian man and women–all journalists but one–by the Medellín drug boss Pablo Escobar. The carefully orchestrated abductions were Escobar’s attempt to extort from the government its assurance that he, and other narcotics traffickers, would not be extradited to the United States if they were to surrender.