“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” - Donald Trump, 2015
This is probably the most powerful, heartbreaking book I'll read this year.
Lydia, her son Luca and her journalist husband live in Acapulco and although the cartels have a hold on the city, they have a pretty nice life. That is, until Lydia's husband writes an expose on the jefe of the newest drug cartel which shatters their world apart.
It's hard to know where to start with this book. I'm tempted just to start gushing and fawning, but I also want to get my thoughts in order.
I think this is a classic case of something being so much more than the sum of its parts. This book has great characters, an eventful, unpredictable plot and superb writing, but other books have those qualities too. There was something in this book that pulled all these factors together and made it so much more than I thought it was going to be. The experiences of the characters and the journey the go on physically and emotionally, is just mind-blowing. Even at the end of the book, when Lydia and Luca are in the US, their future is by no means certain.
As someone living in the UK, my knowledge of what life in Mexico is like is filtered through the BBC - all we see is Trump's views on Mexico, which are pretty horrendous. This book isn't a documentary, obviously, and I don't know what research the author did, but it has really inspired me to find out more about migrants in Central/South America.
I've just discovered that there's been a ton of controversy surrounding this book. I picked the book as a freebie on Audible (the narrator is awesome, btw) because the cover was pretty (shallow) and because the blurb looked interesting. I don't want to comment on the controversy, or whether it's right or wrong for a white woman to be writing about others' experiences. As a white woman, I don't think it's ok for me to either be downplaying other people's concerns or to be decrying something as racist when I don't experience racism myself. I think it is important for potential readers to know that this was written by a white woman though, in case it turns out to be something you'd rather give the swerve.
5 stars