Lydia Quixano Pérez, a bookstore owner in Acapulco, survives a mass shooting that kills sixteen members of her family, including her journalist husband. The massacre is orchestrated by La Búho, the leader of Los Jardineros cartel, after an editorial profile reveals his criminal infrastructure. Lydia and her eight-year-old son, Luca, flee the city to evade the cartel’s surveillance network. They travel north toward the United States border by riding atop La Bestia, the freight train system used by migrants. Throughout the trip, they navigate extortion from local police, dehydration, and the physical threat of falling from moving trains while attempting to reach safety in Colorado.
Readers interested in the logistics of illegal migration and the internal mechanics of Mexican cartels read this narrative to understand the specific dangers of the migrant trail. This audience seeks a tension-heavy survival story that focuses on the sensory details of life in transit. The book provides a look at the trade-offs required for survival when legal protections vanish. Readers finish the story with a concrete perspective on the hazards of the trek north and the desperation that drives middle-class families to abandon their homes.
Clear-cut and escapist; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Curious Generalist. Which reader are you?
Insights from American Dirt
“Fear is the only thing she has left.”
Money loses its meaning when everyone is trying to rob you. Lydia hides her cash in her clothes. Having resources just makes you a bigger target.
“All her life she has heard about the cartels. She has never really seen them.”
Lydia is a middle class bookseller one day. Then a massacre happens at a barbecue. It shows how quickly a normal life evaporates.
“He is a small boy. He is a small boy in a very large world.”
Luca is only eight but he knows the geography of fear. He memorizes train schedules to stay alive. Kids shouldn't have to be that smart about death.
Javier loves poetry and reads rare books. He is also a monster who orders murders. It is terrifying that a killer can be so charming.
- Published
- 2020
- Publisher
- Flatiron Books
- ISBN
- 9781250209764
- Language
- EN
